From the Tiger to the Crocodile
February 24, 2010

IX. Recommendations

To the Office of the Prime Minister

  • Establish a special commission to independently and impartially investigate the allegations of systematic human rights violations perpetrated by the Royal Thai Police and immigration officers against migrant workers in Thailand. This should include the failure of the police to properly investigate crimes against migrants and corrupt practices against migrants in border areas. The commission should be composed of competent and respected representatives of government, nongovernmental organizations including migrant worker groups and trade unions, and academia. The commission should have an adequate budget, the power to subpoena witnesses and compel provision of documentary evidence, and produce a public report. It should be empowered to make recommendations for criminal investigations in specific cases and for changes in laws, regulations, and policies adversely impacting the human rights of migrants.
  • Ensure that the National Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police immediately takes all necessary measures to end the torture and ill-treatment of migrants by the police. All reports of torture should be promptly, effectively, and impartially investigated. Those implicated in abuses should be disciplined or prosecuted as appropriate, regardless of rank. Particular attention should be given to investigating abuses committed against migrants on a systematic basis.
  • Ensure that the Royal Thai Police and the Department of Corrections bring conditions for migrant detainees in police lock-ups and immigration detention centers into compliance with international standards, such as the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners.
  • Establish an independent and impartial national level ombudsman office to receive complaints from migrants regarding human rights violations committed by the police and other authorities, as well as abuses by employers and other private individuals. The ombudsman’s office should be empowered to compel production of evidence and appearance of witnesses during investigations and make recommendations for criminal investigations. Such offices should be staffed with translators in the main languages spoken by migrants.
  • Ensure that the national police devote resources and energy to the investigation of alleged criminal offenses against citizens and non-citizens without discrimination.

To the Ministry of Interior

  • Immediately revoke the provincial decrees restricting migrant workers’ rights in Phang Nga, Phuket, Ranong, Rayong, and Surat Thani provinces.
  • Order the governor of Samut Sakhon to revoke the restrictive policies against migrants.
  • Provide effective oversight to ensure that the governors of all Thai provinces respect the fundamental rights of migrants—including the rights to freedom of movement, assembly, and association and protection from arbitrary interference with privacy, family, home, or correspondence—in line with Thailand’s obligations under international law.
  • Give priority to investigating high-profile incidents in which migrants were victims to establish the principle that the authorities will treat crimes against migrants as seriously as those against Thai citizens. For instance, the ministry should order the governor of Phang Nga to conduct a thorough review of the investigation of the killing of migrant worker Cho and the rape of his wife, Aye Aye Ma, on November 5, 2007, in Thai Muang district of Phang Nga, and ensure that the case is fully and properly investigated. The ministry should also order the governor of Tak province to conduct a full and immediate investigation of the alleged criminal actions of police in the Kilometer 48 area of Pop Phra district, Tak province. It should also do the same with similar cases in other provinces.

To the Ministry of Labor

  • Immediately reform the migrant registration system so that employment-based visas are not specific to particular employers. Ensure that workers can change employers without losing legal status and without having to obtain their first employer’s permission.The time period allowed for terminated migrant workers to find a new employer should be increased from the current seven days, which is manifestly inadequate, to no less than 60 days in line with recommendations of migrant advocates.
  • Amend articles 88 and 100 of the Labor Relations Act of 1975 to allow for persons of all nationalities to apply to establish a trade union and to serve as a legally recognized trade union officer, and ensure that the revised Labor Relations Act is fully in compliance with the standards set out in ILO Convention No. 87 (Freedom of Association).
  • Provide adequate budgetary resources and personnel, and political commitment, to give priority to labor inspections of workplaces with migrant workers, protect migrant workers’ rights, and ensure effective enforcement of all Thai labor laws. Provincial Ministry of Labor offices should be provided resources and authority to hire dedicated interpreters to ensure that information about labor laws, regulations, inspections, and complaints procedures are widely distributed to migrant workers in their own languages, and grievances by migrant workers can be received by the Ministry of Labor offices in migrants’ own languages. Labor inspectors should actively seek the cooperation of NGOs working with local migrant communities.
  • Extend labor protections to domestic workers and establish accessible complaints mechanisms such as hotlines staffed by personnel conversant in migrants’ languages.
  • Immediately develop an administrative process to ensure that stateless persons from the region, such as ethnic Rohingya from Burma, can be registered to work and reside in Thailand as migrant workers.
  • Take the following steps to reform the process of nationality verification of migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos:
    • Ensure all Burmese workers traveling to the border for nationality verification are able to move freely, without harassment by police or other local officials;
    • Launch an intensive education campaign to inform migrant workers in their own languages about the specific details and steps of the nationality verification process;
    • Set clear regulations to control the activities and levels of fees charged by private sector brokers offering services to facilitate nationality verification procedures, including strong penalties to deter cheating and abuses;
    • Keep channels open for nationality verification for as long as needed to allow all migrant workers to enter the process, and ensure that migrant workers eligible for nationality verification are not deported;
    • Include representatives of NGOs, trade unions, and migrant worker associations in policy forums setting out steps to reform the nationality verification system.
  • Publicly call for the establishment and institutionalization of bipartite committees in all workplaces where migrant workers are present, in compliance with Thai labor laws, and ensure opportunities for migrant workers to serve on those committees. Conduct proactive monitoring and extension of protection against retaliation to those migrant workers serving on the committees.
  • In provinces and districts where there are major concentrations of migrant workers working in industrial settings, the MOL and the DLPW should support NGO efforts to provide information and support to migrant workers seeking assistance with the labor law.
  • Coordinate with the Ministry of Interior to end restrictions on the rights to freedom of movement for registered migrant workers, in line with Thailand’s obligations under the ICCPR. Registered migrant workers should be allowed to cross provincial borders freely, and reside where they wish, providing updated information to the migrant registrar.
  • Issue official documents, such as migrant worker ID cards and work permits, directly to the worker rather than to the employer. Since seizure of migrant worker documents violates government regulations requiring migrant workers to hold their own documents, the ministries should reform, coordinate, and enforce regulations to appropriately penalize employers who seize and hold migrant workers’ original registration documents. The government should undertake a public “no tolerance” campaign against all employers, including individuals who hire domestic workers, who seize and hold migrants’ original documents.

To the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security

  • Coordinate with all relevant government agencies to ensure they dedicate adequate resources and personnel to combat forced labor and human trafficking in all its forms. This includes the thorough investigation, prosecution, and punishment of those involved in forced labor and human trafficking, especially police and other government officials directly involved.

To the Ministry of Justice

  • Immediately take action to “develop realistic and effective cooperation in the criminal justice system to remove impunity for traffickers and provide justice for victims” as part of Thailand’s commitments under the Coordinated Mekong Ministerial Initiative against Trafficking (COMMIT) process.

To the Ministry of Foreign Affairs

  • Immediately accelerate and coordinate the efforts of the Thai government to complete its initial report as a ratifying state of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), due in 2004, which has still not been submitted to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
  • Increase cooperation regarding regulation and oversight of brokers/middlemen who recruit workers to come to Thailand, and collaborate on information campaigns to raise awareness among migrants about their rights.

To the Royal Thai Government

  • Ratify the International Convention on the Protection of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families.
  • Ratify core ILO Convention No. 87 (Freedom of Association) and Convention No. 98 (Right to Organize and Collectively Bargain). Ensure that national labor laws fully conform to these standards, and initiate programs to educate migrant workers (in their own language) about these core trade union rights.
  • Ratify ILO Convention No. 97 (Migration for Employment) and Convention No. 143 (Migrant Workers, Supplementary Provisions) without delay.
  • Promote Thailand’s full compliance with the ICERD. Convene a consultative process with Thai civil society organizations, migrant workers advocates, and representatives of migrant workers, to provide inputs to Thailand’s overdue initial report, and second and third periodic reports, to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
  • Adopt policies and legislation as appropriate to ensure the progressive realization of the rights of migrant workers in accordance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to fair wages and equal remuneration for work of equal value, a decent living for them and their families; safe and healthy working conditions; and provision of rest, especially a reasonable limitation of working hours, and periodic holidays.
  • Ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress And Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women And Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime.
  • Promptly ensure that Thailand is fulfilling its obligations under the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, in particular by ensuring a legal prohibition against torture using the definition of torture under article 1 of the convention. Penalties for torture should appropriately take into account their grave nature, in compliance with article 4. Given the significant fears that migrants express about potential retaliation for raising complaints about mistreatment while in custody, the government should also agree to be bound by articles 21 and 22 of the convention, which allows for individual complaints to be raised with the Committee against Torture.

To the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand (NHRCT)

  • The NHRCT’s Subcommittee on Labor Rights should proactively engage relevant government agencies, Thai civil society organizations, and migrant worker associations to uncover and investigate human rights abuses against migrant workers, including those described in this report, and make recommendations for actions to stop such abuses against migrant workers and to hold accountable those responsible.

To the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)

  • ASEAN should promote Thailand’s compliance with the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers, especially to “take into account the fundamental rights and dignity of migrant workers and family members already residing with them” and, as a labor receiving state, to “intensify efforts to protect fundamental human rights, promote the welfare and uphold the human dignity of migrant workers.”
  • The ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) should play a leadership role in engaging with Thailand to better protect migrant worker rights, and urge Thailand as a labor receiving state to act in accordance with the declaration on migrant workers to “promote fair and appropriate protection, payment of wages, and adequate access to decent working and living conditions for migrant workers” and “provide migrant workers, who may be victims of discrimination, abuse, exploitation, violence with adequate access to the legal and judicial system of the receiving state.” AICHR should act under its mandate to request information from ASEAN member states and conduct studies on thematic issues of human rights to expand its attention to the plight of migrant workers in Thailand.
  • ASEAN, in line with its commitment in the ASEAN Charter to encourage full participation in policy-making by the peoples of ASEAN, should endorse and promote an approach of involving migrant workers associations, NGOs, trade unions, and other civil society organizations in the work of the inter-governmental ASEAN Committee on Migrant Workers (ACMW). ASEAN should press Thailand, as one of the four core members of the Drafting Subcommittee of the ACMW (along with Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines), to include civil society representatives as the ACMW drafts an ASEAN-wide agreement on protection of migrant worker rights in accordance with article 22 of the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers.

To the International Labor Organization

  • Develop effective, grass-roots based programs to expand education on trade union rights and human rights for migrant workers from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos in Thailand that will build greater understanding among migrant workers on effective measures to address workplace grievances and other violations of fundamental rights.
  • Support greater capacity building and effective monitoring of performance within the Ministry of Labor to publicize labor rights under Thai law, to conduct inspections of workplace conditions, create accessible complaints mechanisms, and respond effectively and in a time-bound manner to such complaints.
  • Provide technical assistance to the Ministry of Labor on expanding labor protections to domestic workers.

To the Governments of Burma, Laos, and Cambodia

  • Establish an effective migrant labor liaison office, located within the embassies in Bangkok, with a clear mandate for protection of the human and labor rights of their nationals who have migrated to work in Thailand. Ensure that these migrant labor liaison offices should have a clear policy commitment to help, and not punish migrants from their countries, and provide personnel and resources to effectively reach out to migrants, receive complaints over the phone and in person, provide support for access to legal redress, and effectively assist migrant workers’ with grievances against authorities and employers. These offices should also actively liaise with the Department of Labor Protection and Welfare to ensure that labor inspectors are informed about and take action against workplaces employing migrant workers that fail to follow the Labor Protection Act of 1998, the Labor Relations Act of 1975, and all other labor laws and regulations.
  • Drastically improve formal recruitment procedures set out in bilateral agreements with Thailand, especially providing full disclosure of recruitment fees and providing pre-departure education on labor and human rights.
  • Demand effective Thai government efforts to ensure compliance with provisions of bilateral agreements that call for extending full protection of Thai labor laws to migrants recruited through these agreements.

To the United States, European Union Members States, Australia, Canada, and Other Bilateral Donors

  • Instruct embassies in Bangkok to closely monitor cases of migrant worker abuse and publicly and consistently call upon the Thai government to take concrete actions to hold responsible those perpetrating the abuses.
  • Press the Thai government to ensure that the rights of migrant workers and their families are protected in line with obligations set out in ILO core conventions and international human rights instruments.
  • Provide greater assistance to local NGOs and migrant associations working to protect the rights of migrant workers and their families in Thailand. This includes expanding support and training for caseworkers and lawyers to pursue cases of abuse against migrant workers.