Bangkok (Mizzima) – A garment factory on Ratchada Road in the Din Daeng area in Bangkok was raided by Thai police on Tuesday, where more than 60 Burmese illegal workers were being confined against their will, according to Thai police.
The factory is operated by a 50-year-old Chinese national and his wife, the Bangkok Post reported.
Using ladders, more than 40 policemen raided a five-storey building to rescue the workers. The ground floor, first floor and second floor of the building were locked, and police entered the third floor after workers pointed out the way, Kyaw Thaung, a spokesman of the Burmese Association of Thailand (BAT), told Mizzima.
Based on the information provided by a detained worker, BAT reported the workers’ plight to the Thai government’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division.
Kyaw Thaung said that on March 28 when two women were allowed to leave the building to dump trash, they fled and accompanied by a translator, they reported the case to the police.
The workers lacked legal documents and work permits, he said. Most were from Rangoon, Pegu Division and Arakan State.
One of the workers, Thein Naing, said they worked from 8 a.m. to midnight every day, and they paid human traffickers 14,500 baht (US $484) for job agent fees, which was taken out of their salary. A thousand baht was subtracted from each worker’s salary monthly for dormitory, water and electricity costs. If a worker cleared their debt and wanted to quit, the factory authorities would threaten to send them to Mae Sot where they would be returned to Burma, said Thein Naing.
‘At first, the job agent told us we could earn more than three hundred dollars a month in Bangkok’, Thein Naing said.
The factory owner has been detained by the Anti-Human Trafficking Division police. The workers were taken to a temporary camp in Pathum Thani Province, a neighbouring province of Bangkok.
Under Thai law, if an employer hires illegal workers, they can be fined $300 to $3,000 per worker or sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Kyaw Thaung said that NGOs conducted interviews with the workers on Tuesday and many said they did not want to return to Burma because they could not find work. Most of them are supporting parents or siblings and children, he said.
The Bangkok-based Burmese Association of Thailand was formed in 2008 to assist Burmese workers.
