Over 170 Burmese migrant workers were arrested yesterday when Thai officials conducted an immigration raid on a shrimp factory in Mahachai, Samut Sakorn Province, Thailand.
At 2pm on January 12th, officials from the Thai Department of Special Investigation entered the shrimp factory and arrested all workers without legal work permits. According to a family member of one of those arrested, the raid left the factory with only 20 remaining workers, forcing it halt work today.
Those arrested included 100 women, 19 children and 52 men, said Mi Jarai Non, coordinator of the Thailand-based Woman and Child Rights Project (WCRP), which is conducting research on human trafficking between Burma and Thailand.
Eight trafficking victims were also freed in the raid, said Mi Jarai Non. The workers had been forced to work 19-hour workdays for just 1,000 baht a week. The meager salary amounted to just a few baht an hour, a fraction of Thailand’s 203 baht 8-hour minimum wage and 38 baht hourly over-time bonus.
The victims are currently in a safe house controlled by the Thai government, says a press release from the WCRP, though they are likely to be deported once the trafficking case has been investigated. The other workers seized in the factory raid are being held at the Mahachai police station, said the family member, and are likely to be deported back to Burma soon.
According to a release from a consortium of eight Thai non-governmental organizations helping migrant workers in the area, Mahachai is home to over 200,000 migrant workers, 90% of whom are from Burma. The majority are employed in the seafood processing industry.
