“[We do not] help workers get work abroad; they do it by themselves. But, the MRC will help, as a resource center, when they [migrant workers] face difficulties and they come to the center for help,” said an official from Moulmein’s labor and employment search office.

The official added that at this point, the Ministry of Labor only provides embassy representatives for Thailand, Malaysia, and South Korea.

According to IOM pamphlets, there are an estimated 2.3 million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, with another hundred thousand in Malaysia. As the majority of these migrant workers enter the foreign countries illegally, workers face exploitation, human trafficking, and hard labor as servant workers. According to official Thai statements, 50% of Thailand’s trafficked workers are Burmese.

Currently there are MRC offices in Moulmein, Mon State, Karen State, Magwe Division, and Rangoon.

According to Police Chief Aye Thein, of Mon State’s Moulmein anti-human trafficking group, “By having this MRC office, migrant workers can request help from the MRC, instead of us, the police. The MRC will help resolve [migrant workers’] problems, and those issues will then be transferred to us. We will be able to get a lot of information if the MRC has to solve several issues. It is very beneficial for us, since the MRC is here to help migrant workers in need.”

Police Chief Aye Thein continued that if migrants work in foreign countries with legal documents, they will be able to receive the benefits and rights that that country recognizes. If they go to work there illegally, migrants would then face arrest and trafficking by exploitative brokers.

The MRC was opened in Moulmein, Mon State on 25th November by the IOM’s chief of Mission Mr. Kieran Gorman, Chief Minister of Mon State U Ohn Myint, Vice-Minister of the Union [of Burma], and representatives of the Ministry of Labor, Employment, and Social Security.