Ten Myanmar women who were locked up in Thailand for almost three months were rescued.
Ten Myanmar women workers who had been locked in a garment factory owned by Thai women on Prachan Osin (17) Street, Bangkok, Thailand for almost three months were rescued.
The MHAC official said that Thailand-based MHAC, the Labor Protecting Network (LPN) Foundation, and various Thai authorities intervened and rescued on October 10. Those Myanmar women workers are from Sagaing and Bago regions and they were locked up for almost three months and had to work, but they did not receive wages. Therefore, since they contacted the MHAC team on October 3 and asked for help, on October 10, at around 11:30 p.m., they entered the place with the Thai authorities where they were locked up together and rescued.
The MHAC official, Ko Ye Min, said, "The Thai authorities went to the location they sent and arrived at their place. When they entered, the boss did not open the door, When the girls showed us their hands from above and shouted from above to save us, the Thai employer opened the door only when the Thai authorities told her that they were asking for help, to come and save them.”
The ten women were forced to work more hours a day than a normal worker and were locked up in CCTV-equipped areas where they could not go anywhere inside the factory. Among those locked-up women, it is also reported that seven people have full support for work permits and the right to live in Thailand, and the remaining three have no evidence.
An official of the MHAC alliance, Ko Ye Min, said, “These girls are currently under the care of the Thai government. The current boss forced Myanmar girls to lock themselves in a room. We have been charged with forcing them to falsify wages.”
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) is concerned about political, economic, and social issues after the outbreak of Covid-19 and the military coup. It was published in December 2022 that due to economic instability, nearly 40,000 Myanmar citizens are leaving abroad in various ways every month. It has been reported that in such departures, as well as the neighboring countries, without high costs, and technical, there has been an increase in the number of people illegally entering Thailand who do not need professional skills and earn a reasonable amount of money.
The Bangkok Post reported that there are about 400,000 legal Burmese workers who have come to work in Thailand since the military coup in Myanmar, but labor experts say that if illegal workers are included, the number could be in the millions.
Ko Ye Min said, "Job opportunities are scarce, and my future has been lost. Because of that, the closest route into Thailand, both they had to sneak in from nearby routes. They have to work.”