The military could be cracking down on illegal migrants as part of a
wider program.
By the
end of Wednesday, June 25, at least 246,000 Cambodians had fled
Thailand in just 18 days, according to the International Organization
for Migration (IOM). Most travelled back across the Thai border at Aranya
Prathet, past the garish no-man’s land of casinos separating the two countries
and on to a roundabout a few yards inside the Cambodian town of Poipet. Some
came voluntarily in crammed, open-topped trucks. Others stood caged up in Thai
border police vans after their arrest and deportation for illegal entry. Almost
all carried meager possessions.
Already
Southeast Asia’s largest mass international migration since the end of the
Indochina wars in the 1970s, there are still more questions than answers as to
why so many Cambodians have fled Thailand. Following theMay 22 coup in Bangkok, could Thailand’s ruling
military junta be systematically targeting undocumented Cambodians due to
recent bad blood with Phnom Penh?
At a
press conference in Phnom Penh on Friday, rights group ADHOC presented
Cambodian migrant witnesses who spoke of friends and relatives injured and
killed because of brutality by Thailand’s military. So far, ADHOC has documented up
to nine Cambodian migrants who have been killed since the exodus began on June
7, including one case in which Thai soldiers reportedly shot the tires of vans
carrying returnees, causing a crash, injuries, and a handful of fatalities,
says organization President Thun Saray.
“They
should have asked migrant workers to leave voluntarily,” he said by telephone
from Phnom Penh. “But according to our observations they didn’t do this. They
didn’t do it in a civilized way.”
On June
6, a day before the exodus started, Thai army spokeswoman Sirichan Ngathong
reportedly said illegal migrant workers “will be arrested and
deported.” Since then the military government has denied a crackdown and
vehemently rejected reports of violence.
“I have
insisted to [the Cambodian ambassador] that the rumors are unfounded,” Sihasak
Phuangketkeow, acting foreign minister under the military government, told Thailand’s English-language daily The
Nation last week.
Most
observers, including ADHOC’s Thun Saray, say there is no doubt the Thai
military has a new policy to force out as many as two million illegal migrant
workers in the country. But opinions remain divided on whether Cambodians are
the main target.
Some
aid workers, rights researchers, labor officials, and politicians on both sides
of the border told The Diplomat they suspected Thailand’s
military was deliberately targeting Cambodians due to sour bilateral relations
in recent years. Few would go on the record, however.
Jakrapob
Penkair, an exiled former aide to ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, said he
believed Thailand’s military government is punishing Cambodians because Thai
dissidents have been welcomed across the border, especially since last
month’s coup.
On June
7, the same day as the migrant exodus started, Thailand’s military government
said it had received assurances from the Cambodian Ambassador You Aye that
Phnom Penh would not house opponents of the junta after Jakrapob announced plans for an anti-military group in exile.
Former
Pheu Thai leader and interior minister Jarupong Raungsuwan was among a number
of ex-ruling party members and dissidents who had already fled to Cambodia. On
Tuesday, he announced – from an unknown location – his leadership
of the first official anti-junta group in exile, the Organization of Free Thais
for Human Rights and Democracy.
Jakrapob,
the spokesman of the group, has remained a guest of Hun Sen since fleeing army
threats of lèse-majesté charges in 2009, three years after he founded the
United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, the main Red Shirt faction
that opposed the previous Thai coup in September, 2006.
“I
believe the sudden migration of Cambodian workers is a result of the Thai junta
and their aristocratic network’s sense of revenge,” Jakrapob said by email from
London.
There
are likely fears within the junta that Cambodia could harbor a Thai government
in exile, said Paul Chambers, a researcher on the Thai military at the
Institute of Southeast Asian Affairs, affiliated with Chiang Mai University.
Sympathy for Thaksin runs deep in Phnom Penh.
In
2010, Hun Sen appointed Thailand’s exiled billionaire tycoon an economic
advisor in a move perceived as deliberately provocative towards the then
government of Abhisit Vejjajiva, the man eventually installed as prime minister
after the 2006 coup against Thaksin. At the time, Abhisit and Hun Sen were in
furious disagreement over Preah Vihear temple, a sovereignty dispute that dates back to the early 20th
century. In November, the International Court of Justice ruled in favor of
Cambodia on the land around and below the temple.
“The
arch-royalist faction currently leading the Thai military holds a grudge
against Hun Sen,” said Chambers. “I think there is some embedded anti-Cambodian
discrimination among Thai military elements.”
But
does this extend to a systematic and as yet secret policy to use violence
against illegal Cambodians, or perhaps isolated cases of heavy-handedness by
individual Thai soldiers? Kanchana Di-ut, program director of the
Thailand-based Myanmar migrant NGO the MAP Foundation, is among those who
argues a campaign against Cambodians is an illusion.
There
are an estimated half a million-plus illegal Myanmar migrants in Thailand,
about double the number of Cambodians (although estimates of the number of
Cambodians have been revised upwards in the wake of the recent exodus). If the
junta’s crackdown on Cambodian migrants was no different to that against Myanmar
nationals then reports of violence against the latter group would be expected
to be far more common. However, the very tangible exodus – mainly through one
checkpoint at Poipet – has created a media focus on the Cambodian situation.
Many international news agencies have made no mention of a crackdown also
involving Myanmar migrants. But reports in Myanmar have.
On June
12, Democratic Voice of Burma reported a raid on an illegal Myanmar settlement in
Chiang Mai involving 100 Thai security police using loudspeakers. Three days
later, Yangon-based Eleven Media reportedthat 163 illegal Myanmar workers had been arrested
in Thailand in the previous 12 days during combined operations by the military,
immigration officials, and border security. Some undocumented Myanmar workers
had hidden in farms and remote buildings.
“Myanmar
migrants are facing the same situation [as Cambodians],” said Kanchana.
Most
Cambodian migrants in Poipet spoke of a brother, distant relative or friend who
had been treated poorly, or worse. On Sunday, none could be found who had
themselves received treatment any worse than spending six or seven hours
crammed into a lorry.
Cambodian
migrants were already jumpy after the leader of rallies against the former
Yingluck Shinawatra government, Suthep Thaugsuban, claimed “without evidence”
that Cambodians were among Red Shirt ranks, said Human Rights Watch Deputy Asia
Director Phil Robertson.
Rumors
of a crackdown on migrants by the new military government then spread quickly
among Cambodian migrants prompting many to flee as the exodus gained critical
mass, MAP, ADHOC and HRW told The Diplomat. The Cambodian
government also slashed the price of passports on Friday from $135 to
$4, spurring another surge in returnees over the weekend – 6,000 poured through
Poipet alone on Sunday, said the IOM’s Cambodia Project Officer Brett Dickson.
By
contrast, illegal Myanmar migrants have taken their usual course of action
ahead of all-to-common raids – they have laid low, said MAP’s Kanchana.
Cambodians
have a lot more to go back to in general. Although employment opportunities
remain scarce in rural areas, most have families and homes.
By
contrast, Myanmar’s border with Thailand remains dotted with landmines
following decades of civil war. Schools and hospitals are non-existent in
places like Karen state and villages have all but disappeared with thousands of
families still holed up in a string of refugee camps on the Thai side of the
border. In northern Kachin state and parts of Shan state which borders
Thailand, civil conflict rumbles.
“Traveling
back home for Cambodians is much easier compared to Myanmar workers,” said
Kanchana.
As
rights investigators continue to gather evidence on the crackdown in Thailand,
speculation continues over why the junta has targeted the millions of poorly
paid workers that do the country’s lowliest jobs.
Following
a recent investigation by The Guardian into
slave-like conditions for many in the shrimping industry, and last week’s
decision by the U.S. to downgrade Thailand to the lowest tier on
human-trafficking – which had been expected – the junta decided enough was
enough, said Kan Yuenyong, director of the economic think-tank Siam
Intelligence Unit.
The
crackdown on illegal migrants fits into a wider program to eradicate Thailand’s
grey markets, which Kan estimated makes up to 50 percent of the country’s
overall economic activity. The military has already busted mafia-like taxi
cartels in the holiday resort of Phuket and there have been reports that street
vendors – ubiquitous but unregulated across Thailand – will be next.
“This
is a part of the economy that no-one talked about,” said Kan.
Answerable
to their electorate and shackled by pervasive corruption on the ground, successive
Thai governments have failed to put a dent in the grey economy. But the new
military administration views cleaning up these increasingly embarrassing
industries as the lesser of two evils, said Kan.
“This
will create a short-term problem for the Thai economy.” But control of cartels,
illegal industries and undocumented migrant activity will reassert control over
industries which secretly generate revenues to trade arms and other activities
that challenge state authority, he added.
There
are already signs the junta’s recent harsh crackdown on illegal migrants could
produce long-term results. On Saturday, Thailand’s military authorities held a
meeting with migrant groups in Chiang Mai where officials spoke of plans for a
new policy to document all foreign workers and issue them with health cards,
said Kanchana whose MAP Foundation took part.
Two
days earlier, pressure from Thai authorities prompted Cambodia to announce a new one-stop shop to document migrants in
Poipet opening next month. And with new, cheaper passports, already Cambodians
are trickling back into Thailand, noted Tun Sophorn, the International Labor
Organization’s national coordinator in Phnom Penh.
“It
seems that these [hundreds of thousands of] workers will try to return to work
in Thailand the legal way,” he said.
Steve
Finch
Steve
Finch is a freelance journalist based in Bangkok. His work has appeared in the Washington
Post,Foreign Policy, TIME, The Independent, Toronto Star and Bangkok
Post among others.
Business & Investment Opportunities
Saigon Business Corporation Pte Ltd (SBC) is incorporated
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