Group slams Thai deadline for registering migrants

By THANYARAT DOKSONE

BANGKOK

A complicated process to register millions of foreign workers from Thailand's poorer neighbors could leave many in legal limbo and vulnerable to extortion by authorities and other abuse, a human rights group said Tuesday.

New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Thai government to postpone a Feb. 28 deadline for between 2 million and 3 million workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos to begin the registration process to verify their nationalities. If they fail to register, they become subject to arrest and deportation.

The process, which they have two years to complete, is meant to weed out illegal foreign workers.

A large number of the migrants -- 80 to 90 percent of whom are from Myanmar -- entered the country illegally and the Thai government earlier attempted with limited success to have all of them registered. Most have poor prospects of making a decent living in their own countries, and take low-paying jobs that Thais are unwilling to do.

Human Rights Watch said the verification process is expensive, complicated and poorly regulated, keeping many migrants from reporting themselves and thus making them vulnerable to abuse.

A report by the group, based on interviews with 82 people, said abuses faced by the migrants include killings, torture in detention, extortion, sexual abuse and forced labor. It said some were perpetrated by corrupt civil servants, police, unscrupulous employers and thugs who knew that the migrants weren't protected by law.

Kapach Nimmanheminda, a spokesman for Thailand's Labor and Social Welfare Ministry, said there have been reports of extortion and harassment of illegal immigrants, but the ministry expected the situation to improve once the workers are legally registered.

"The illegal migrant workers have not been vocal about the abuses because they were afraid of threats. Once they have proven their nationalities, they will have their own right to ask for justice," Kapach said.