Migrant workers traveling to Thailand are circumventing restrictions in southern Burma by purchasing fake local identity papers.
Without identification papers showing residency in the area or clear business in Kawthaung, Burma’s southernmost border town, new arrivals at the border with Thailand are made to turn around. Sometimes detained for a night or two by immigration officials, workers’ IDs are held and only returned once they have been sent north to Ye Township, Mon State.
In a classic example of why Burma is considered one of the most corrupt countries in the world, immigration officials in Kawthaung are simultaneously selling identity papers to anyone who can pay, regardless of where they are from. According to the international watchdog group Transparency International, Burma is the second most corrupt country in the world, trailed only by Somalia.
Once in possession of local identity papers, workers say that crossing into Thailand is easy. “I made a local ID like this,” explained a source who is from Ye Township, Mon State. “That’s why I don’t need to worry about checks from local authorities at Kawthaung. We can pass the check points and cross to Ranong by making an official letter from Burmese authorities for just 1,000 kyat.”
According to local sources, a local identification card and family papers can be had from the Department of Immigration for just 2,500 baht. In Yebyu town, to the north, another source purchased legitimate local ID papers, which cost just a 30,000 kyat “expediting” fee.
The papers are being made available to people who clearly do not hail from the area, explained the worker from Ranong: “Wa and Chinese [from upper Burma] go to the office and say they are Tavoyan ethnics to get the easy ID. Some people even change their religion on the ID.” Ethnic Tavoyans in Tenasserim speak a strongly accented version of Burmese that is clearly distinguishable from that spoken by residents of other parts of the country.
In other cases, people do not even have to be present in the immigration office at all. “Even brokers make the Kawthaung ID because they can give a guarantee to migrant workers from other townships that the authorities will pass them if they provide a Kawthaung ID,” said the same source, who currently works in Ranong and purchased his ID papers from a broker.
