US embassy cable - 05BANGKOK628

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, Labor - Burmese Migrant Workers, Tsunami 
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