Methodology

This report is based on interviews conducted between August 2008 and May 2009 by a team of researchers from Human Rights Watch, MAP Foundation, and the Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association (YCOWA). A total of 82 detailed individual interviews were conducted with migrants residing in Thailand, comprising 67 Burmese, 8 Laotian, and 7 Cambodian migrants. This work was supplemented by additional research and follow-up telephone interviews with migrant workers, NGO advocates, and government officials through January 2010.

We conducted interviews in Bangkok and in 10 different provinces so that our findings would reflect the different areas where migrants live and work across the country and the varying government policies in effect. Provincial government decrees in the provinces of Phang Nga, Phuket, Surat Thani, Ranong, and Rayong severely limit migrant workers’ rights. The provinces of Tak, Trad, and Ubon Ratchathani are major gateway provinces where migrants enter Thailand from Burma, Cambodia, and Laos. Samut Sakhon province is a major migrant-receiving province in the central plains of Thailand, subject to increased controls because of its close proximity to the capital city of Bangkok. Chiang Mai province has a significant influx of ethnic Shan from Burma, and has experienced high-profile police crackdowns on migrant worker use of motorcycles. The abuses described in this report reflect events that took place after December 1, 2006, when the major provincial decrees restricting migrant workers came into effect.

Wherever possible and in most cases, the interviews were held in private, but several were in the presence of relatives and friends of the interviewee. Human Rights Watch also conducted four group interviews with migrant workers in Chiang Mai, Phang Nga, Ubon Ratchathani, and Samut Sakhon. Interviews were generally conducted in the migrants’ language, sometimes with translation into Thai or English. All interviews used a questionnaire jointly developed in July 2008 by the research team, which is included as an appendix to this report. Researchers selected migrants for interview according to their knowledge of local migrant communities and their experience of human rights violations. Many were referred to us by local migrant organizations and other NGOs.

We have disguised the identity of all migrants we interviewed with pseudonyms and in some cases have withheld certain other identifying information to protect their privacy and safety.

Human Rights Watch and its research partners ensured that all interviewees were informed of the purpose of the interview, its voluntary nature, and the ways in which the data would be collected and used. All orally consented to be interviewed and all were told that they could decline to answer questions or could end the interview at any time.

To supplement formal interviews with migrants, we also conducted interviews with around two dozen NGO staff members working with migrant workers, lawyers and legal advocates, United Nations officials, and Royal Thai government officials, including those from the National Human Rights Commission, Ministry of Labor, Ministry of Social Development and Human Security, and Ministry of Interior. Contacts with the Royal Thai police took place in Bangkok, Pattani, Ranong, and Songkhla provinces but were deliberately limited because of security concerns.

In preparing this report, Human Rights Watch also closely reviewed Thai government documents and laws regarding migration and we consulted reports written by UN and intergovernmental agencies, NGOs, and migrant worker associations.