Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand attacked amid border tensions

As border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia erupted to five days of fighting before a ceasefire was declared, reports of Cambodian migrant workers being beaten by Thai gangs were on the rise.

Thai government and police officials have both issued public statements condemning the attacks on Cambodian migrant workers.

RFA Khmer service’s Poly Sam speaks with Bangkok-based rights and labor activist Phil Robertson of Asia Human Rights Labour Advocates (AHRLA) about what’s being done.

Below is a transcript of the interview for RFA Perspectives:

RFA:

Quite a few Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand have been discriminated against since the war broke out on July 24th. A Cambodian NGO that works in Thailand documented around 16 cases that Thai youth gangs have been beating up Cambodian migrant workers.

And I’m wondering, in your opinion, why would a country like Thailand allow this kind of violence to happen to migrant workers?

Phil Robertson:

Well, I will say a couple of things on this. First, the Thai government and the Thai police have actually issued statements saying that this should not happen. So we had the police on Friday, saying very clearly, no attacks should happen against migrant workers and that anybody who did this would face the full force of law.

We also saw the deputy government spokesperson make a similar statement, again, saying that the police were going to patrol and trying to protect migrants in areas where there are a significant number of Cambodian migrants. But the big problem in Thailand is that there is a yawning gap between what officials say and what the law says and what actually happens on the ground.

And as you said, there were these youth attacks. I’ve seen some of the videos that were quite horrific, with gangs of Thai youths attacking Cambodian migrant workers who had nothing to do with what is going on between the two countries. I mean, those migrant workers are simply here trying to make a living, and send money back to their families.

And those attacks have caused a great deal of fear in the Cambodian migrant community. There are a number of people who have voluntarily left, who have headed to the border, to try to return because they were so afraid. And that’s really unfortunate because Thailand needs migrant workers. They need these workers working agricultural construction, particularly, you know, here in Bangkok, much of the construction is being done by Cambodian workers.

So, I’ve seen a couple different worksites, including one that I was, nearby at a restaurant just the other day and I was talking to the waiters and saying what’s happening with the worksite over there? And they said, oh well, it was all Cambodian construction workers and they all ran away.

So quite clearly, the fear is very significant. And, I don’t see that anybody has been prosecuted yet, for these attacks. And what that shows again, is that the Thai police are a bit of a paper tiger here and there remains a degree of impunity to abuse migrant workers. And this has been an ongoing problem in Thailand for many years.

This is a bigger problem of which this latest incident is just part, which is that migrant workers really are treated very poorly in Thailand that they don’t get their rights under law. And I’m not just talking about Cambodians — I’m talking about Burmese. I’m talking about Lao, I’m talking about Vietnamese. I’m talking about all sorts of different people, from different countries in the region who come to Thailand.

They expect that they’re going to be treated accordance with law. They’re going to get the minimum wage.They’re going to get the the basic rights and benefits under the labor law in Thailand. And it simply doesn’t happen. They’re not being considered as equal to Thais, even though the law says they must be.

RFA:

Except the fact that’s in — I think most Cambodians are being at the brunt of the injustice that’s what’s going on in Thailand right now, because the two countries are practically at war at this time. And just like you said up to now there is no arrest of the perpetrator. And some of them, we can see their faces.

I think if Thai authorities have the intention to arrest those people, I think they probably could easily do it. But like you said they are paper tigers at this point in time. Do you know why that is? Since this will portray a very negative image for the Thai government and Thais as a country?

Phil Robertson:

I’m assuming that the orders that were given to crack down on anybody who attacks migrants simply doesn’t filter down to the lower levels of the police force and the local officials.

You know that there’s not enough power and determination behind the order to make it stick. And unfortunately, the migrant workers may not know where to go for help. And really, what they need to do is they need to be contacting groups, NGOs and others, many of those who are, in a coalition called the Migration Working Group. That group is one which has NGOs that do advocacy and take up cases and try to pressure the Thai government to do the right thing and what we find is whenever migrants actually achieve some degree of justice in Thailand, invariably there’s an NGO or a Thai labor union that is helping them.

On their own, the migrant workers don’t have enough power or knowledge on how to work the Thai system and to actually achieve some degree of recognition for their rights. And so, this is a big problem.

As I said, there’s a big gap between what the law and policy says and what the actual implementation is on the ground. And I’m assuming that these police either don’t want to take on the Thai youth because they’re worried that they might get in trouble.

Someone would single them out as going after youth who were expressing what some in the right wing and the conservative elements of Thai society would see as justified attacks and that they would worry that they would have issues and problems and they assume that these attacks would soon be forgotten.

And things will go back to the way they were before. So this is, really an unsatisfactory and unacceptable situation that once again whenever something goes wrong between Thailand and Cambodia, invariably it is the Cambodian workers in Thailand that face the brunt of the abuse by unthinking Thai nationalists who don’t recognize that these migrant workers are ordinary people just trying to make a living.

RFA:

You just answered my question, actually, in addition to what you say is that the Cambodian migrant workers simply are really fearful of their safety at this point in time.

And many of them went into hiding meaning that they’re not leaving their apartment, their home or the place that they’re staying. So, some of them actually say that they’re really, really afraid to go out to buy food or necessities.

I’m just wondering, since you are based in Thailand and you understand Thai culture and stuff like that, it’s there any possibility that average Thai citizens can help alleviate the pain and suffering of these people?

Phil Robertson:

Well, I think many — Look, I mean, I think that there are many Thai citizens who would look at this situation and say, yeah, there’s no reason to attack these migrant workers. These migrant workers are just ordinary people and I think that most Thai people, most Thai citizens are pretty considerate and pretty humanitarian in their outlook.

I’ve had many cases of migrant workers where somebody faced a difficult time and there was a good Samaritan there was someone from the Thai community who was prepared to help. But what we have is also some of these ultranationalist, right wing youth or gangs, who think it’s easy and fun to go out and attack a migrant worker.

And they need to be brought to book. They need to be held accountable under the law. And frankly, the Thai police are just not doing their job.That’s the fundamental problem. Again, it comes to the Thai police, their failures, to effectively protect people in Thailand, whether they be Thai or other nationalities.

RFA:

So, who is to blame in this situation? You said the Thai police are not doing their job. Should the international community or the Cambodians blame the Thai police?

Phil Robertson:

I think the Thai police are at the core of the problem. It’s their failures to implement the law. As I said, there was a very clear statement on Friday, by senior Thai police officials saying attacks against migrants would not be tolerated. And the deputy government spokesperson said the same thing.

RFA:

Do you think they really mean that?

Phil Robertson:

Absolutely. The policy makers are saying the right thing. They’re saying, “We don’t want to attack civilians. We don’t see attacking civilians who have nothing to do with this as a way forward. And this discredits Thailand,” as you’ve mentioned. It makes Thailand look bad.

So I think people recognize that what has happened, these attacks are damaging to Thai credibility. And it’s damaging to the Thai image. But the problem is that the recognition, the policy recognition and the announcements simply don’t make it down to the level where the police enforce the law.

And so, we don’t have police investigating. We don’t have police necessarily looking at CCTV to figure out through facial recognition who these people were who are the attackers?

As you said, there are a number of cases where the faces of the attackers are very clear. These people could be identified and they haven’t been, and that’s a problem. That’s a failure of local police to carry out orders that have been issued from above.

RFA:

Since the Thai authorities specifically, Thai police cannot fulfill their role and responsibility to protect migrant workers from Cambodia, what do you think the Cambodian government should do to help their own people?

Phil Robertson:

Well, I’m not sure the Cambodian government can do anything to help their own people. I mean, the problem is that the Cambodian government’s migration management processes are corrupt.They are failing.

They provide no protection to Cambodian migrant workers. Even when it was open and operating, the Cambodian embassy in Thailand was worthless when it came to protecting Cambodian workers.

So, for the Cambodian government, the claim that now they’re sort of very concerned about the status and the health of migrant workers in Cambodia when they’ve done so little to help Cambodian migrant workers who’ve come here previously. I think it’s, you know, it’s a bit ridiculous.

The Cambodian government doesn’t have a real leg to stand on when it comes to talking about protecting migrant workers overseas, because they don’t. They simply fail. Whether it be in Thailand or Malaysia, Indonesia or the Middle East. The Cambodian migrant workers who are overseas are on their own.

RFA:

Well, the situation is a bit different. One is they’re neglecting the people. Another one is that people are facing severe discrimination and perhaps death. You know, if someone allowed this to happen.

Phil Robertson:

Unfortunately, what I would say about this is I would say that if the Cambodian government starts to come in and say that they are here to protect the Cambodian migrant workers, everybody would understand that that was a political ploy by the Cambodian government.

If the Cambodian government was serious about doing something, they would be working with U.N. agencies like the IOM, to provide effective protection and support for migrant workers living overseas, whether they be in Thailand or somewhere else.

But, sending migrants overseas is big money. The brokerage fees are a lot of money. And this has been taken over by Oknha and other corrupt people in Cambodia,who do deals with the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Labor looks the other way. So, Cambodia does not have a good record when it comes to protecting its migrant workers overseas.

Certainly, if it wants to speak up and say something about what has happened to the migrant workers in Thailand, I think that that would be helpful. But, it would also just, get more attention on the migrant workers as well. I mean, I think what we need to do is have a way of getting NGOs to pressure Thai police to do their job.

RFA:

Regarding the NGOs — your organization — is there any specific task or responsibility that you guys are doing to help migrant workers at this particular time?

Phil Robertson:

Well, we’re trying to coordinate responses amongst Thai NGOs to go out and investigate and look at these cases and try to figure out how we can get a more effective policing response to go after the people who were committing the crimes and try to find ways to help the migrant workers themselves.

We’re very small. So we work in coalition with other groups and that’s the best we can do, to be honest. But we need to speak out about these issues as well. Ultimately, it would be good to have more international media attention on what has happened to migrant workers from Cambodia in Thailand.

But I think it’s hard. It’s hard because everybody is focused on the big issues at the border and the cross-border shelling and what is happening in places like Minburi, or other parts of the Bangkok suburbs where these attacks have been taking place is sort of out of sight, out of mind for many of the international media.