LOST IN THAILAND'S TSUNAMI: BURMESE MIGRANT WORKERS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 BANGKOK 000628

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

DEPARTMENT FOR DRL/IL, G/TIP, PRM AND EAP
LABOR PASS ILAB

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ELAB KWMN PHUM PREL PREF TH
SUBJECT: LOST IN THAILAND'S TSUNAMI: BURMESE MIGRANT WORKERS

REF: BANGKOK 306


1. (SBU) Summary. The Royal Thai government (RTG) has
earned international plaudits for its responsiveness to
western tourists and Thais affected by the tsunami. Roughly
30,000 Burmese migrants, employed in construction, fisheries,
and hotels in three devastated provinces, remain marginalized
in official assistance efforts, however. Many survivors
appear to have returned to Burma or moved to other provinces
in search of employment. Significant numbers stayed, and are
camping in rubber plantations and forests, with little or no
assistance. Jobless, subject to arrest and deportation, this
population is at risk for trafficking. RTG estimates of
migrant deaths suggest about 250 - 350 perished in the three
provinces. NGOs believe 2,500 died in a single district
alone. Language barriers, and distrust of RTG officials,
means few of the Burmese dead will be identified. End
Summary.



2. What Happened to the Burmese Migrants?
--------------

(U) Over 62,700 Burmese migrants are registered in Phuket,
Phang Nga and Krabi provinces, the three areas most affected
by Thailand's December 26 tsunami. (UN and NGO observers
believe another 20 - 30 percent of resident migrants are
illegally present, suggesting a total population well over
80,000.) Of this large group, 23,800 registered workers (and
another 7,000 or so illegal) were in high-risk economic
sectors that bore the brunt of the disaster's impact:
commercial fishing, construction and hotel staff. NGOs and
Royal Thai government (RTG) agencies reported many of those
employed in affected economic sectors, in shock and without
employers, wished to return to Burma. The U.S. NGO World
Vision, assisting destitute migrants return to Burma via a
transit center in Ranong (Ref),reported that about 700
registered workers returned voluntarily through the facility
until it closed on January 16th. Another 800 returned to
Kawthoung (Burma) without assistance. Others appear to have
fled to rubber plantations and wooded areas inland in Phang
Nga and Krabi. A local NGO reported that 3,000 surviving
Burmese, formerly resident in a Phang Nga fishing village
devastated by the disaster, are now sheltering in a forested
area nearby. About 320 Burmese families, including pregnant
women and children, reportedly fled to the hills above the
resort area of Khao Lak. On January 22-23, a U.S. NGO
provided the group with food and baby formula, which is using
plastic sheeting for shelter. Similar reports of migrants
living in difficult conditions have been received from Krabi
province. Although no estimates are available, a large
proportion of migrants are believed to have moved to other
inland provinces to look for new employment - a move that
legally has to be reported to the RTG Ministry of Labor
(MOL). To date, only 450 registered workers have requested
MOL permission to move, however.


3. The Thai Government Responds
--------------

(SBU) On January 10 - 11, Laboff met with senior officials in
the MOL and Ministry of Social Development and Human Security
(MSDHS),the two main government agencies providing services
to tsunami survivors, to encourage increased outreach efforts
to affected Burmese migrants. MOL Deputy Permanent Secretary
Thapabutr Jamasevi asserted that registered foreign workers
"have exactly the same rights" as Thai citizens in requesting
job placement, severance pay and other benefits under the
Labor Protection Act. Similarly, MSDHS Permanent Secretary
Wallop Phloytabthim claimed that migrants received "identical
treatment" with Thais. However, Wallop acknowledged that
few Burmese migrants had approached local MSDHS officials for
assistance, speculating that they were "afraid" to request
shelter in an internally displaced person camp established by
the RTG in Phang Nga province. (That camp now holds
approximately 4,000 Thais.) MOL assistance is similarly
limited to date: an official report dated 18 January claimed
medical treatment at area hospitals was provided for 500
registered workers. Otherwise, services have been confined
to the voluntary repatriation of registered workers to Burma,
processing the relatively few requests to change to employers
in other provinces, and providing USD 125 for "body
preparation" services for four deceased migrants.


4. Widely Differing Estimates of Migrant Deaths
--------------

(U) Several Thai NGOs that work with Burmese migrants
completed preliminary surveys of tsunami affected areas the
week of January 10 - 17. The Migrant Assistance Project and
Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association estimated 2,500 migrants
died in the hardest hit area, Khao Lak District in Phang Nga
province, where there were 9,800 (mostly fishermen)
registered. The NGOs developed the estimate by interviewing
villagers to determine how many fishing boats were lost; each
vessel was then assumed to contain thirty Burmese fishermen.
(Many boats had just returned from night fishing when the
disaster struck, and were beached with crew asleep on board.)
Other NGO reports offer limited snapshots of casualties: 200
migrant construction/hotel workers dead at Patong beach,
Phuket; 270 fishermen perished in Baan Nam Khem fishing
village, Phanga Nga province; "hundreds" more at another
nearby fishing village. Official RTG estimates are much
lower. Based on surveys of employers retaining registered
workers, the MOL believes only 255 were killed by the tsunami
(all in Phang Nga province),with another 200 missing in
Phuket. Of the missing, some are believed by MOL officials
to have returned informally to Burma.


5. IOM: Government Assistance Sub-Par
--------------

(SBU) An initial assessment by the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) notes that RTG services to
migrants fall far short of those provided to Thai nationals
and western tourists in tsunami - affected areas. The January
10 report criticizes MOL efforts for focusing on registered
migrants, ignoring the thousands who are unregistered. For
those unregistered, quick deportations are the norm, which
IOM characterized as a "politically convenient" way to deal
with the alleged looting of damaged properties by Burmese.
(The RTG immigration chief publicly accused the Burmese
workers as "preying" on local Thais in wake of the disaster.
Isolated cases of looting, in reality mostly perpetrated by
Thais, were quickly blamed on migrants and the charge was
widely believed.) Public health services are poor: by
January 11, only 29 registered migrants had received
treatment in Phanga Nga provincial hospital, which has seen
over 620 tsunami patients since December 26. An attempt by
NGO health workers to assess migrant health needs at one
fishing village was met by violence on January 12, when Thai
villagers imprisoned three Burmese staff of World Vision, and
beat one Thai. (The villagers mistakenly believed the health
team intended to repatriate the migrants, for whom fishing
boat owners had paid registration fees.) Health and
sanitation outreach to the large numbers living in forests
and rubber plantations, and to those workers not registered,
is currently limited or non-existent.


6. Comments.
--------------

(U) Migrant workers are by nature a highly mobile and
somewhat hidden population. In the chaotic wake of Thailand's
worst natural disaster, a large portion of the 30,000 in
provinces and occupations most likely to have been affected
are simply unaccounted for. Many likely moved quietly to
other provinces in search for new employment, beyond the gaze
of RTG officials and the handful of interested NGOs. Others
may have returned to Burma at the many informal crossings
along the porous border. A true accounting of the Burmese
killed by the tsunami will never be made. For those whose
bodies were found, few will be identified. In the six days
immediately following the tsunami, Laboff did not encounter
any Burmese searching for relatives among the hundreds of
bodies strewn about make-shift morgues in Khao Lak district,
Phang Nga province, nor were there Burmese language notices
on the many missing persons boards. On December 29, the
hasty cremation of dozens of Asian remains was observed at a
Buddhist temple. Workers said that most remains had not been
claimed by a group of Thai villagers waiting nearby, offering
that "they are probably just Burmese." Concerned NGOs
believe that language barriers, and a well-ingrained fear of
Thai officialdom, accounts for the reluctance of migrants to
identify compatriots who perished in the tsunami.


7. (SBU) Post advocacy efforts in the weeks ahead will focus
on the living, particularly Burmese women and children who
might be at risk of trafficking in persons. About 10,200
registered (and an estimated 3,000 unregistered) women were
employed in tsunami-devastated economic sectors in the three
most affected provinces, and many of these have certainly
lost employers, putting them in danger.
BOYCE