ENGLISH DEYEA NEWS

By SAW YAN NAING | Thousands of Burmese migrant workers in Thailand are returning home after losing their jobs or being put on half pay as local factories cut production and labor forces because of the economic slowdown.

About 3,000 migrant workers in the Thai-Burmese border town of Mae Sot had lost their jobs this month, according to Moe Joe, chairman of the Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs.

Another local official, Moe Swe, head of the Mae Sot-based Yaung Chi Oo Workers Association, said Burmese migrant workers employed by the Lian Tong Knitting Co., Ltd in Mae Sot had been told to leave the company compound.

About 1, 500 were now living in temporary shelters they had built near the bridge connecting Mae Sot with the Burmese border town Myawaddy.

Many Burmese migrant workers in Mahachai in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon Province—most of them employed in the fishing industry—have had their hours and overtime cut.

Min Thint Lwin, a Burmese migrant worker in Mahachai, said he knew of about 30 Burmese workers in his housing block who hadn’t had regular employment since the beginning of November. There are 15 blocks housing Burmese migrant workers in Mahachai.

Burmese migrant workers at the Three Pagodas Pass, on the Thai-Burma border, said their work schedules had been cut to 20 days a month. An estimated 13,000 Burmese migrants work in Thai clothing factories in the area of the Three Pagodas Pass.

“I can earn only about 100 baht (US $3) a day at the moment. Before, I could earn about 200 baht ($6) a day,” said one migrant worker.

Burmese migrant workers at rubber plantations in the southern Thai province of Surat Thani also report a drop in earnings and fear they will lose their jobs because of falling rubber prices.

“I can’t send money to my family any more,” said Ah Zaw, a rubber plantation worker. “I don’t think I can stay any longer in Thailand.”

A cash transfer agent in Mon State in southern Burma said transfers of money from Burmese migrant workers in Surat Thani had dried up in November.

Burmese rubber plantation workers usually transfer a large percentage of their wages back to their families in Burma using the informal “hundi” money transfer agencies. One “hundi” agent in Mon State said he had transferred only 2 million kyat ($1,650) in October, compared to a normal monthly amount of 20 million kyat ($16,500).

There are an estimated 2 million registered and unregistered Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, according to labor rights groups.