Protection of Thailand’s Overseas Labor Force: A long way to go
The welfare of Thailand’s economy is tied to a certain portion of its own population migrating abroad in order to gain employment. According to the Thai Ministry of Labor, up to 500,000 Thai nationals seek work outside of Thailand annually.
Thai laborers wishing to work abroad are often managed by recruitment- groups which may prey on those most vulnerable – husbands supporting families, for example, whose primary source of income has been stripped away.
Handlers – owners of farms or companies employing Thai workers in the foreign country – may withhold passports and paychecks, limit outside contact, or provide inadequate living conditions.
THAI WORKERS IN HAWAII
In Hawaii, the two owners of Aloun Farms, brothers Alec and Mike Sous, pleaded guilty earlier this year to ‘conspiring to commit forced labor.’
The case involved 44 Thai migrant agricultural workers who traveled to Hawaii willingly but were then coerced by non-physical means to work for wages less than promised and less than the minimum allowed by US law.
The workers had their passports confiscated by the owners of the farm upon arrival and were reported to be living in storage containers. One of workers managed to tell their story to a counselor at a local community center. The case was then referred to the FBI and prosecuted by the Civil Rights Division within the US Department of Justice.
The two brothers await sentencing and each face a fine of $250,000 and five years in prison. As part of their plea agreement they agreed to pay restitution and assist with the ongoing federal investigation into the trafficking and employment of Thai migrant workers n Hawaii.
The Thai workers each paid $16,000 to traffickers in Thailand. This money was used to pay for air fare and visa fees. The remaining sum was split by the traffickers. The owner-brothers, however, have agreed to make payments to only 24 of the 44 workers, and only half of their original recruitment fee.
Most of the Thai workers had taken loans against their farms, homes and land in order to pay the up-front fees to the traffickers, and are now said to be facing the break-up of marriages over the financial-stress.
WHO’S RESPONSIBLE?
This trend of human trafficking and migrant labor will increase as globalization and environmental stressors caused by climate change create both economic challenges and opportunities.
For example, Thailand is currently facing a drought-emergency in more than 50 of the 76 Thai provinces. The long term drought is seriously affecting farmers’ livelihoods. The lure to search for work abroad is significant.
Many countries, such as the US, do have formal mechanisms in place meant to protect immigrant workers and trafficking victims. In the Aloun Farms case above, the recruitment occurred under the ‘guest worker program’ for temporary and seasonal agricultural workers within the U.S. Department of Labor. This program:
a) Prohibits collecting recruitment fees from workers, and
b) Requires employers to pay for the workers’ airfare and other required transportation, and housing (including access to groceries and cooking facilities).
Under the US Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, however, the Thai agricultural workers in this case qualify as trafficking victims and have respite under this law, including possibly accessing a T-visa, allowing them legal stay in the US.
The problem is that Thais seeking jobs abroad in many cases do not have access to specific information concerning their rights in that country.
Of course the US should take more active steps so this well-intentioned guest-worker program is not further abused. The Thai Labour Department requires labor recruiters to register themselves, but these regulations are often circumvented by human traffickers.
So what role does the Thai government have in proactively advocating for its own citizens’ rights who choose to work abroad? And why did the Thai worker in Hawaii report the abuse to a local community center – rather than the Thai Embassy in Hawaii?
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