A petition last month by a woman migrant worker, who was paralyzed in 2006 while working in a hotel construction site in Chiangmai, for equal compensation was rejected by the Chiangmai Administrative Court, according to a statement released today by the Bangkok-based Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) led by well-known Thai activist Somchai Homla-or.
 
The petition, submitted on April 11 and turned down on April 25, had requested for the repeal of the Social Security Office (SSO) policy denying migrant workers access to Workmen's Compensation Fund (WCF).  According to the policy, migrants must be able to show registration documents and a work permit as well as a passport or alien identification documents.
 
Nang Noom Maisaeng (37) the disabled Shan migrant, however, could present only a work permit issued by the labour ministry.

 She therefore received only a lump sum compensation of B584, 896 ($18,278) from her employers, as ordered by the Chiangmai Labour Court on May 13.
 
According to Somchai, "The Ministry of Labour, by refusing to revoke the SSO's existing policy in question, is not only unlawfully neglecting to perform its duty towards all migrant workers, but is also clearly breaching non-discrimination principles guaranteed by the Thai constitution as well as a number of important international conventions to which the Thai government is a signatory."
 
The HRDF will be petitioning the Supreme Administrative Court of Thailand in Bangkok on behalf of Nang Noom and her two colleagues tomorrow, May 28.
 
There are approximately two million Burmese migrant workers in Thailand. Only 568,878 have been registered as migrant workers by June 2007. At least half a million of them are said to be Shans.