Despite the cabinet's decision to extend by another two years the nationality verification deadline for migrant workers, the problems of underground labour and exploitation will not go away.
It is estimated that there are about 2-3 million migrant workers in Thailand, mostly from repressive Burma. The deadline extension will allow the registered workers, numbering about a million, a two-year grace period to have their nationality verified and passports issued by their governments as preconditions for obtaining work permits here.
But there are still many stumbling blocks ahead.
To start with, the Thai authorities are not equipped to help the workers deal with a complicated system which concerns various agencies as well as the governments from the workers' countries of origin.
In addition, if the Burmese government still refuses to speed things up by processing the nationality verification requests in Thailand and still requires the workers to travel back and forth to Burma, the chances of meeting the deadline are zero.
The deadline extension also assumes that the workers are willing to enter the nationality verification process, which is not true.
A large number of migrant workers from Burma are ethnic minorities who face harsh oppression at home. They fear that the information they must give to the Burmese authorities will not only facilitate future extortion but also threaten both their safety and that of their families back home.
Prior to the deadline extension, registered workers were meant to file their nationality verification papers before Feb 28 this year, or face deportation. There was simply no way that 1 million registered migrant workers could meet the deadline, which is only a month away.
Considering that there are already about 1 million underground migrant workers who are barred from joining the nationality verification process, the number of people facing deportation at the end of next month would have easily reached 2 million. Of course, they would trickle back, and being underground will make them vulnerable to all sorts of exploitation. If the country aims at ending slave labour and at promoting legal and decent work, this is not the way to proceed.
One important reason why many workers prefer to remain underground is because they do not see the benefits in becoming legal. Last week, the US court gave a five-year sentence to two employers in Hawaii who subjected 44 Thai workers to forced labour, debt bondage and confinement through confiscation of official documents. These are the crimes Thai employers routinely practise with impunity.
If the authorities get serious with human traffickers and with employers who break the labour law which promises a minimum wage, proper work conditions and welfare benefits to Thais and non-Thais, a large number of migrant workers would definitely be more willing to join the legal process. But this is a big if, and we all know why. Corruption aside, ethnic prejudices play a big role in keeping migrant workers in slave labour. Law enforcement remains weak, allowing exploitation to continue because Thai society views migrant workers as outsiders. In case of the Burmese, they are even seen as enemies due to ultra-nationalist history textbooks, which teach that Burma is Thailand's foe.
This is why deadlines will come and go. The 2012 deadline will most likely be missed again, and extended again as a matter of ritual because Thai society does not care for the rights and welfare of migrant workers.
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