Two Thai-based organisations have urged the United Nations to provide assistance to Burmese migrant workers in Thailand whose labour rights were being denied by their employers.

The Human Rights and Development Foundation and the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee said, in a letter addressed to United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, that the majority of Burmese migrants working in Thailand were denied compensation by their employers for injuries in the workplace.

Chiang Mai (Mizzima) – Thailand's Labor Minister has denied accusations that the Thai government discriminates against Burmese migrant workers by denying them access to a workers compensation fund.

Paitoon Kaewthong, Thailand's Labor Minister, said the Thai government provides equal and fair treatment to all migrant workers from neighboring countries without discrimination.

An influx of illegal Burmese migrant workers following the Songkran festival last month has triggered a security crackdown.

Burmese migrant workers should be screened before they enter the Thai workforce, an activist says.

Mr. Abdulkarim Usoh, aged 42, Imam of Ban Kayee Mosque was shot dead on Friday, 30^th January 2009 while he was walking into the mosque to lead the Friday prayers. The incident has created strong vibrations of emotions amongst the local Muslim communities in the Deep South.

We write to you to raise our serious concern about the plight of the Rohingyas, a Muslim minority from Rakhine State, western Myanmar. Thousands of Rohingyas have fled in recent months on boats sailing for Thailand and Malaysia, and hundreds are missing, feared drowned.  Their situation has reached a critical stage over the last two months, as the Thai military have forcibly expelled approximately 1,000 Rohingyas arriving in southwest Thailand by boat, while the Indian and Indonesian authorities have rescued hundreds of them.

MIGRANT WORKER ACCIDENT

Court will not intervene in compo case

ACHARA ASHAYAGACHAT

The IRRAWADDY

Friday, November 14, 2008

Burmese Migrants to Get ‘Passport Documents’

By LAWI WENG

Burma is preparing to offer new nationality identification papers to Burmese migrant workers, which would allow them to work legally in Thailand , according to a source within the Burmese immigration department.

“We are preparing to open these three offices,” said the immigration officer in Myawaddy, a border town opposite Mae Sot on the Thai-Burmese border. “We’re just waiting for the order from Naypyidaw.”

The three passport registration offices where migrants could apply for the documents are due to be opened along the Thai-Burmese border at Myawaddy, Tachilek and Ranong townships, according to the source.

The officer added that the new passport documents would be cheaper than applying for a Thai work permit; however, it would mean that workers would be subjected to tax.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
PRESS RELEASE
For immediate release 11 November 2008
Myanmar: Harsh sentences for 14 dissidents reveal government’s true intentions

Today’s sentencing of at least 14 dissidents who took part in the 2007 anti-government demonstrations to 65 years’ imprisonment each is a powerful reminder that Myanmar’s military government is ignoring calls by the international community to clean up its human rights record, Amnesty International said.
“In the midst of its so-called 'Roadmap to Democracy', the government of Myanmar reveals its true intentions by sentencing these dissidents for nothing more than peacefully expressing their views during last year’s demonstrations,” said Benjamin Zawacki, Amnesty International's Myanmar researcher.