ASEAN Challenges on Illegal Migrant Workers in Fishing Industry:

Case Study of Thailand

Paween Rungtaweechai

Master’s student of International Relations at the Department of International Relations,

Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Universitas Airlangga.

Keywords: ASEAN; Illegal migrants workers; Fishing industry; Thailand; Regional migration system.

Abstract: This paper argues that not only in the western countries where migrant workers play an important role in the lower

jobs but in developing countries like Thailand are also in great need of migrant workers. At present, there are many migrant

workers moving to Thailand especially from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. The number of migrant workers is expected to

increase. After the opening of free movement of labor which one part of ASEAN Economic Community’s goal is. ASEAN

focused more on the skilled labor but in fact, low- skill workers are a significant group of people in the labor market who also

deserve a good management. The research found out that the rise in global seafood demand gives the big opportunity to many

countries to expand the export market and make more benefit to the country and without migrant workers the fishing industry

in Thailand couldn’t grow this fast but on the other hand this kind of opportunity also increase the problem of human right

abuses in Thailand’s fishing industry and the main reason is because of mainly of the workers there are illegal migrant

workers. Case study of Thailand is examined, how the Thai government take an action on this issue after being pressured by

the international organization and it concludes by the challenge for ASEAN to take an important role to find the long-term

solutions to solve this problem without sending them back to their country but make a policy and migration system to be more

effective.

1 INTRODUCTION

Modern transportation has made it easier, cheaper and

faster for people to move in search of jobs,

opportunity, education and quality of life. At the same

time conflict, poverty, inequality and a lack of

sustainable livelihoods compel people to leave their

homes to seek a better future for themselves and their

families abroad. (United Nations, 2017: 1). When

talking about migrants most will think about security

issues but on the other hand migrant workers are

needed by developed countries. Migration is a feature

of social and economic life in many countries but the

profile of migrant populations varies greatly. This

section is due to various migration sources. In most

of Europe for example citizens enjoy extensive rights

to free movement. In Australia, Canada and New

Zealand migration labor is managed to play an

important role. Other sources include family and

human migration. Whatever the source, migration has

an important impact on our society and this can be

controversial, but the positive impact on the

economic part of migration is very high (The

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and

Development, 2014). Borjas (2005: 77-95) argues

that migrants are an important group for the economic

part especially low-skilled migrants because they

benefit locals by doing jobs that are rejected by local

people. Same with Legrain (2007) who state that

because of the rising level of education across

Western countries means that fewer local workers are

willing to work in lower jobs, not only because of low

wages but also because such jobs are often unpleasant

and low status. From this opinion, migrant workers

become the groups needed by the state.

However, migrant workers are also often

associated with issues of human rights violations.

Migrants in irregular situations tend to be highly

disproportionate to discrimination, exploitation and

marginalization, often living and working in the

shadows, afraid of complaining and denying their

human rights and fundamental freedoms (Office of

the United Nations High Commissioner for Human

Rights, 2018). Especially migrant workers who came

to another country illegal are the first victims of

human rights abuses. Many countries often viewing

migrants as undesirable, many host governments

make minimal effort to measure the social costs of

migration for workers and their families, particularly

regarding family unity; abuses during the migration

Rungtaweechai, P.

ASEAN Challenges on Illegal Migrant Workers in Fishing Industry: Case Study of Thailand.

DOI: 10.5220/0010275300002309

In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations (ACIR 2018) - Politics, Economy, and Security in Changing Indo-Paciﬁc Region, pages 219-225

ISBN: 978-989-758-493-0

219

process; or discrimination, exploitation, and limited

access to redress that migrants may face in their host

countries. (Human Right Watch, 2010). The main

argument in this article is that it's not just trying to

protect the rights of illegal migrant workers but policy

must be modified, establish a regional migration

system in order for those illegal migrant workers to

have a legal status.

This article begins with an exploring the

background of illegal migrant workers from

Myanmar in Thai fishing industry and why they are

important. It then rising of rights abuses and forced

labor issue, and how international organization

brought this issue and force the government of

Thailand to take an action and concludes by the

challenge for ASEAN to take an important role to find

the long-term solutions to solve this problem without

sending them back to their country but make a policy

and regional migration system to be more effective.

2 ILLEGAL MIGRANT

WORKERS IN THAI FISHING

INDUSTRY

Since the early 1990’s, the Thai government has

attempted somewhat bringing order to an influx of

undocumented migrant workers into Thailand to fill

low skilled gaps in the labor market. Migrants are a

crucial part of the Thai economy’s success in recent

decades but their accessibility to public health, safety

and security are quite limited (Hall, 2011). Migrant

workers come to Thailand in many forms. Current

Guidelines for migrant workers who did not come yet,

it is legal to come in under Section 11. The employer

must apply for a permit and pay the fee. There are two

types of migrant workers: first, the skilled migrants,

workers who have the ability to use complex

technologies. Migrant workers are required to apply

the work permit within 30 days. Another one is

migrant worker who comes to work in accordance

with the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

There are two types of permits for work in the home

and the working class. Thailand has signed this type

of MOUs with Laos and Cambodia (Ministry of

Labour, 2018). According to International Labour

Organization report (2017) showed that there are

currently about 3.25 million legal and illegal migrants

working in Thailand comprising about 8.5 per cent of

the country's workforce and 3 million among them are

from Myanmar. These migrants mostly work in low-

level jobs in the fields of fisheries, agriculture,

construction, manufacturing, household chores and

other services. Factors supporting the migration of

workers from Myanmar to Thailand may split into

two: (1) Pull Factor; rapid development expansion,

labor shortage, modifications in population structure,

higher wages and networks in the destination country.

Thailand itself has higher economic growth compared

to neighboring countries until there is a shortage of

manpower in industry and agriculture. During the

Thai economy in Thailand's heyday has turned into an

industrialized country. We will see populations

moving from rural to urban areas and from

neighboring countries to Thailand. Currently, local

workers in the Thai industry are not enough

consequently there is a need for workers, especially

from neighboring countries. So, the Ministry of Labor

of Thailand has signed Memorandum of

Understanding (MOU) with three countries namely

Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia to import workers

legally. But the main import workers are from

Myanmar because the Laotian and Cambodian

governments do not support workers to leave the

country of origin. In addition, also many workers who

come to Thailand illegally. This illegal group of

workers who often face human rights violations in the

workplace, they dare not report to the police when

problems occur because fear of being arrested and

sent back to the country of origin. Especially the

country of unrestricted Myanmar, people who are a

minority who live the border usually migrate to work

in Thailand. These people do not have other options

except to survive and work in Thailand under any

circumstances. (2) Push Factor; low economic

growth, high unemployment rate, labor export

policies and political factors such as situations of

unrest in the country of origin (Pasadilla, 2011). The

main cause of migrant workers from Myanmar

migrating to Thailand is the result of fear of

persecution. Repression the Government of Myanmar

has a policy of managing and controlling the

territories inhabited by minorities. They are

concentrated in new projects such as relocation

projects. The project forces villagers to migrate from

their homes and sometimes does not provide new

addresses or allocate easily controlled addresses and

the area is usually worse than the original address.

There are also operations related to the daily lives of

people such as labor or to serving as porters to

Myanmar's military or Myanmar military attacking

the people's bodies without being protected by any

law. After the migrant worker decides to leave

Myanmar to Thailand there are usually two

approaches to migrant worker mobility: temporary

mobility and permanent mobility. Regarding labor

mobility methods it is found that most migrant

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

220

workers from Myanmar travel from their home

country to border checkpoints and proceed to the city

by car before moving to another workplace. The

travel approach can be divided into three main ways

as follows first, on foot; immigration workers usually

access to Thailand via the border. Secondly, by bus;

workers travel by bus accompanied by brokers,

family members, friends or relatives who usually

work in Thailand. And the third, by car or motorcycle;

workers always come with their brokers by car or

motorbike (Sukuntha, 2014: 45-63).

According to several studies in Thailand on the

impact of migrant workers' arrival on local residents

and workers, (1) Security issues: many illegal migrant

workers coming to Thailand are scattered throughout

the country. The number of migrant workers is not

known to the real number and also includes their

residence. In addition, the problem can also affect the

relationship between Thailand and neighboring

countries, (2) Health problems: increasing the number

of illegal migrant workers in Thailand is a problem

for the transmission of diseases such as malaria,

tuberculosis, dengue, leprosy, malaria that previously

Thailand is under control. The cause comes without a

diagnosis, and there is no health insurance card that

also affects the public health budget of Thailand, (3)

Impact on local workers and the economy: on the

positive side, migrants can replace labor shortages in

the manufacturing sector especially in the dirtiest and

most vulnerable sectors that local workers avoid

doing. On the negative side, with the increase in the

number of migrant workers in Thailand, employers in

labor-intensive sectors have convenient access to the

workers that they need. Since most of the jobs taken

up by migrant workers are dirty, dangerous and

difficult, employers do not have to worry about being

able to hire sufficient numbers of local workers for

such jobs. Hiring migrant workers in Thailand also

means lower costs for employers. It is evident that

migrant workers create a national wage differential as

they are cheaper to hire than local Thai workers.

Lower costs incurred by employers translate into

lower prices of goods, which help to keep the

country's national inflation rate low (Chalamwong et

al, 2012: 450). In addition to the three greatest

impacts there are also other impacts such as cultural

differences which can lead to future conflicts if Thai

government do not prepare and properly manage.

3 HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN

THAILAND FISHING

INDUSTRY

With disgusting working conditions caused the Thai

fisheries industry to lack local workers and most of

them are full of migrant workers, mainly from

Myanmar. The fishing boats usually remain at sea for

a long time. Migrant workers are often forced to work

anywhere from sixteen to twenty hours per day with

little or no wages. Many captains even store large

quantities of amphetamine so workers can work

longer hours. The ships themselves have no

resemblance to the conditions of human life. While

the conditions on each vessel are slightly different

daily meals for workers usually consist of a bowl of

rice mixed with boiled squid and discarded fish other

than that the hard work also makes the wounded

worker's hands from the scales of fish and friction

from the fishing nets (Stephens, 2017). Greenpeace

(2016) reports that many survivors say supplies will

be delivered by aircraft carrier at sea every 90 days.

The carrier will travel from Samut Sakorn port to

Saya de Malha Bank. Vegetables will be empty in the

first 10 days and fresh meat will run out within 20

days after that, eat them only white rice and fish. Hard

work and rare food every day so they are sick and

tired and can cause death

4 INTERNATIONAL PRESSURE

ON THAILAND TO SOLVE

ILLEGAL MIGRANTS’

PROBLEM AND HUMAN

RIGHTS ABUSES IN THE

FISHING INDUSTRY

Issue of human rights violations that occurred in the

fishing industry as a result Thailand is warned and the

punishment directly and indirectly from many parties

namely; (1) Ranks Tier 3 (lowest level) in the

Trafficking in Persons report (TIP report) of the

United States in 2014. TIP report is an annual issued

by the U.S. State Department's Office to Monitor and

Combat Trafficking in Persons. The report ranked

governments based on the efforts they felt to

recognize and combat trafficking. Because of the

United States monitored though no punishment will

be granted but human rights are a very important issue

for developed countries. The issue of human rights

violations that occurred in the Thai fishery industry

ASEAN Challenges on Illegal Migrant Workers in Fishing Industry: Case Study of Thailand

221

has received attention from governments and the

media in many other countries, especially developed

countries and this could lead to a contraction in Thai

consumption and impact on the economy and exports,

especially in the Thai fishery industry. (2) Given a

yellow card by the European Union for the conduct of

IUU (Illegal Unreported and Unregulated Fishing) in

2015 (Human Rights Watch, 2018). The fight against

illegal fishing is part of the EU's strong effort to

ensure sustainable marine governance and to project

globally the sustainability principles contained in the

Common Fisheries Policy. Between 11 and 26

million tons of fish - at least 15% of the world's

catches are illegally captured every year and worth

between 8 and 19 billion Euros. As the largest

importer of fish in the world, the EU does not wish to

engage and accept such products into its market or the

so-called '"IUU Regulations"' which came into effect

in 2010 to allow access to the EU market only for

fishery products that have been certified as legal by

the flag State concerned. When flag countries cannot

certify their products, the commission initiates a

process of cooperation and assistance with them to

help improve their legal framework. This process

milestone is a warning (yellow card), a green card if

the problem is solved and a red card if the problem

cannot resolve the latter leading to a ban on trade or

trade tires (European Union, 2015). (3) Human Rights

Watch, the International Labor Organization (ILO)

and Greenpeace make a report showing the state of

the issue of human rights violations and publish the

report to the media to pressure the Thai government

to resolve the issue immediately. In a report by

Human Rights Watch, the 134-page report said the

fishermen from neighboring countries are still

trafficked to work on Thai boats, prevented from

changing employers, not being paid on time and

paying less than the minimum wage. Rights groups

interviewed 248 fishermen today and former

fishermen mostly from Myanmar and Cambodia in all

major Thai fishing ports over the past three years

including dozens of allegedly trafficked and 153 still

looking for fish. They also spoke with Thai officials,

boat owners and captains, civil society activists,

representatives of fishermen associations and UN

staff. The media exposed the murder, beating and

virtual slave labor on Thai fishing boats requested the

EU to issue a 'yellow card' in April 2015, a Thai

warning that it could face a ban on seafood exports to

Europe because of its illegal, unreported and

unregulated nature (IUU) fishing practices. It said

Thailand must reform to end the offense. The US also

places the country on the Tier 2 Watch List in the

Human Trafficking Report or TIP report (Pollard,

2018). In addition, Greenpeace also made a report

entitled "Turn the Tide" in 2016. Greenpeace

Southeast Asia investigations into IUU fishing,

trafficking and other rights violations including

deaths due to negligence on Thai fishing vessels

operating in the Indian Ocean. The research and

analysis of fleet movements between 2014 and 2016

shows how overseas Thai fishing vessels that fled

from oppression in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea

arrived in an area in the Indian Ocean called Saya de

Malha Bank in the latter half of 2015 (Greenpeace,

2016).

Currently, the value of the fishing industry in

Thailand is about 3.285 million Euros or about

114.975 million Baht. Thailand has the potential to

produce and process marine and fishery products of

about 3 million tons per year. The sea accounts for

about 1.5% of Thailand's total exports. Getting a

yellow card from the European Union and a Tier 2

ranking in the TIP report resulted in the Thai fishery

business becoming sluggish. Thailand will soon have

to solve the problem, otherwise the EU will suspend

seafood imports from Thailand and will make the tax

wall triple

5 THE ROLE OF THE THAI

GOVERNMENT

With pressure from many International Organizations

pushing the Thai government to raise the issue into a

serious issue to safeguard the national economy as

well as humanity. Human Rights Watch (2018) said

that the Thai government responded by abolishing the

old fisheries law and issuing new regulations to

regulate the fishing industry. The old fisheries law has

no enforcement of workers' protection from forced

labor, law enforcement, the establishment of trade

unions and the protection of labor rights. The

Government is expanding the application of key

provisions of the labor law governing wages and

working conditions for fishing vessels and

establishing in law several provisions of the

International Labor Organization (ILO) agreement

through the application of Ministerial Regulation

2014 on the Protection of Labor in Employment Sea

Fisheries. Migrant workers are required to have legal

documents and be recorded in the crew list when the

ship departs and returns to the port. Doing so will help

end some of the worst offenses such as captains that

kill migrant workers. Thailand also created a Port-in,

Port-out (PIPO) system to require ships to report for

inspection as they depart and return to the port and

ACIR 2018 - Airlangga Conference on International Relations

222

establish procedures for inspection of fishing vessels

at sea. The system is available in 28 national marine

provinces to improve surveillance and monitoring

including fishing vessels with a tonnage of more than

30 tons. They must provide crew information to the

control center within 24 hours before entering or

leaving the port. Illegal fishing has been added to

increase illegal fishing fines by up to thirty million

Baht from the previous two hundred thousand Baht.

In addition, on the Thai government's grievance

channel also partners with various non-governmental

organizations (NGOs) in establishing the Migrant

Workers Migrant Work Centers in 10 provinces. By

2017, a total of 57,498 migrant workers are provided

with assistance by the Center, doubling the number of

migrant workers assisted by 2016. Four hotlines

available in the languages of Thailand's neighboring

countries have been established to serve as a channel

for complaints and consultations for both employers

and employees and has gained more attention and

usage. By 2017, the hotline receives a total of more

than 130,000 calls including reports of human

trafficking cases leading to more than 60 prosecution

cases (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of

Thailand, 2018).

6 THE CHALLENGE FOR ASEAN

TO TAKE AN IMPORTANT

ROLE TO FIND THE LONG-

TERM SOLUTIONS TO SOLVE

THE PROBLEM

Migrant workers are a regional problem that ASEAN

member countries must recognize and work together

to address. Since joining the ASEAN community,

there is a need for a strong foundation. Especially the

people in ASEAN. At the heart of the third pillar is

the ASEAN Socio-Cultural Community (ASCC),

which deals with migrants such as protecting and

promoting the rights of migrant workers. Include

appropriate skills development and employment. To

achieve equality. Respect for human rights and

reduce the development gap of member countries. In

order to achieve this goal ASEAN established a

mechanism for the protection and promotion of

migrant rights in 2004 and in 2007 ASEAN approved

the ASEAN Declaration on the Protection and

Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers. It has

established a committee to carry out its mission. Calls

on migrant countries to make full efforts to protect

basic human rights. Promote social welfare. And

respect the dignity of the migrant workers. There has

been a discussion on migrants every year since 2008.

However, most migrant workers have not received

the attention and lack of publicity. The issue of

migrant workers is a difficult issue to solve. All

countries aim to develop their economies in order to

achieve the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC)

goals by the end of 2015. They do not give

importance to the management of migrant workers

seriously, leading to the neglect of ASEAN. The

community is not strong. Because the people lack

understanding and do not respect the fundamental

freedoms of the community, it can cause conflict. It is

like a tree that has stunted roots and may fall in the

future (Tassanaipitukkul, 2014). Related to this issue,

Kampan and Taneilian (2017) asserted that it should

be the responsibility of the government in each

country to take immediate and comprehensive action

to provide citizenship to all persons presently

stateless, and to ensure statelessness will not persist

in the AEC. But another problem, the ILO study show

that only eight high-skilled professions which are

doctors, dentists, nurses, engineers, architects,

accountants, surveyors, and tourism professionals

that cover within ASEAN mutual recognition

arrangements (MRAs) that existing MRAs only

represent 1.5% of labor force across the region. Low-

skilled workers are not governed by regional

arrangements. Same with the World Bank (2017) who

argues that The ASEAN Economic Community has

taken steps to facilitate mobility, but these regulations

only cover certain skilled professions or just 5% of

jobs in the region.

To fill the gap ASEAN should make a policy and

migration system to be more effective. The fact that

migrant workers come to the country has become one

of the ways of earning state income. There is

corruption within the state mechanism, such as the

deduction of labor queues. If migrant workers come

into the system, it is legal and the corruption will be

less. As a result, the beneficiaries are trying to keep

migrants from entering the legal process. What is to

be worked on is the cooperation of labor leaders.

Workers' organizations and NGOs to develop legal

frameworks for protection and offer through political

parties for legal representation. This is a mechanism

that can be pushed together at one level. In addition

to reviewing the laws related to labor mobility in each

country. ASEAN is taking a shared interest. Social

security and protection and welfare, Ministry of

Labour suggest to developing a central database on

the labor market in the country and the labor market

in ASEAN by setting up a coherent standard data

structure. Between production data, manpower

development and human resource needs data. And

ASEAN Challenges on Illegal Migrant Workers in Fishing Industry: Case Study of Thailand

223

develop the potential of information technology in

linking labor data and economic data with other

relevant agencies. It also coordinates and links with

ASEAN member countries to set policies and

guidelines for labor development and coordination of

vocational training. Thus, establish a data center to

link the labor database system. For example, labor

market information, labor demand, labor demand, etc.

And to keep ASEAN member countries updated, the

labor market database is always in place, as well as

ensuring data integrity. Labor market at the macro

level and data needs. ASEAN member countries

should exchange information on capacity building,

labor movement of ASEAN through national and

regional learning exchanges as a means to increase

the capacity of workers to meet the demand of the

labor market in ASEAN. And the last, it should be

outreach and create awareness about labor mobility,

free trade under the ASEAN Economic Community

including culture as well as knowledge and

understanding of the laws and regulations applicable

in ASEAN countries to educational institutions,

practitioners and people involved in the development

of professional markets in each branch.

7 CONCLUSION

In this context it will be seen that migration is a

continuous phenomenon happening all over the world

with different reasons. Migrant workers, especially

low-skilled workers who migrate from home

countries to countries where better economic

conditions have become victims of human rights

abuses. However, the presence of International

Organizations such as the European Union, Human

Rights Watch, the ILO and Greenpeace made the

issue closely monitored and resulted in pressure on

the Thai government to immediately resolve the issue

by changing relevant legislation including the

creation of a system to accommodate the arrival of

workers migrants in the future. In this study the role

of ASEAN still not clear since we know that AEC still

focus on only eight skilled professions. Illegal

migrant workers problem requires further steps, a

strong political will and cooperation among ASEAN

range states. The difference between ASEAN

member countries is diverse. It is the challenge of

ASEAN to find a balance between driving the

economy through liberalization under the ASEAN

Community. The right to receive benefits and benefits

to workers, both economic and production. And

people in large groups in the country.

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