Thailand set a regional first in the region this month Allows refugees to work in the country In an effort to deal with aid cuts and its own labor shortage.
More than 87,000 refugees Living in the nine refugee camps along Thailand’s border with Myanmar is completely dependent on food handouts and foreign aid.
Most of them have not left the camps of makeShift shopters in the four decades since, as ethnic minorities in Myanmar, they were expelled by a brutal military regime.
But now the shrinking of foreign aid budgets, especially from the US, which supports refugee camps, and a border dispute with Cambodia, have pushed Thailand to think about it.
Tammi Sharpe, Representative of Thailand at the UN Sugdie Agency, the UNHCR, called the decision “a crucial point”.
“I can’t say enough about how excited we are about this,” he said. “Refugees can now support themselves and their families, stimulate the local economy through increased consumption, and contribute to National GDP growth and economic stability.”
The policy was welcomed by the residents of the camps. “In the beginning, the people of the refugees could not go outside the camp. Now, they [allow] refugees to work abroad. This is very, very good,” said Bway, a Burmese refugee and general secretary of the Karen Carmpnoe Committee, which represents the Burmese ethnic minority in the camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.
“Refugees must stand up for themselves [feet] Because in the camp there is not enough for everyone… there is only enough for the weakest people. consideration [most] people, they don’t.
“The Thai government allowing refugees to work is very good for [us]. We are very happy [we] can walk outside [the camps] in Thailand. “
“Now, however, all the information is not clear and individuals are worried about their lack of Thai language or whether they have the skills for the available positions,” said Bway. “They are concerned about many things: if they have [a] problem, how to solve the problem. “
The change in policy is something the UN, and the international rescue committee (IRC) and other AID agencies, have long sought. However, the Thai government has held off on such a move for fear of public opposition and attracting more migrants while Myanmar remains locked in a civil war that continues to displace people.
The US is one of the largest donors of the nine camps, said Léon de RiedMatten, Executive Director of the Consortium Consortium (TBC), which is the largest supplier of residents. After the Trump administration slashed a lot of its foreign aid budget, TBC only supported the most vulnerable in the camps, while IRC had to close its health facilities. This leaves people worried about what will happen to them.
De RiedMatten said: “Thai authorities understand that no other government is ready to replace the Americans who support food and cooking themselves to replace the Americans.”
But in a resolution passed in August, and which comes into effect this month, Thailand’s labor ministry stated that special permission to work would be granted to eligible camp residents “to avoid burdening the Thai government alone and support the country’s economic growth, address labor shortages and promote human rights”.
The country’s workforce is depleted by an aging population but also by Exodus of 520,000 Cambodians in July After a decade long border between Thailand and Cambodia boiled over in military conflict. Cambodians make up 12% of the Thai Workforce, mostly employed in agriculture, fishing, manufacturing and construction.
Calling the decision “long overdue”, Roiseo Wongsuban, a consultant to the migrant working group, said the joint organizers in Thailand “now position Thailand” today as a leader in the management of the moving population.
He said that while the public may have thought of refugees as a burden in the past, they have a “much more positive reaction” now.
Refugees looking for a job must apply for a work permit and undergo a health screening. Prospective owners will be courted by camp officials.
Many positions are expected to be based on farms or in factories, with employers visiting the camps, Sharpe said. Government ministers conduct health screenings and host job fairs in the camps.
Some refugees want to apply, he said, but others are more afraid. Approximately 42,600 refugees from Myanmar are considered eligible.
For many, it was their first time leaving the camp and family as well as their first job, and few spoke Thai, so the prospect was daunting.
Akekasit Subannapong, advocacy coordinator for the Committee for the coordination of services in Thailand, to know how the norms, the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws and how the laws in society. “
The workers will receive identification documents and access to banking so they can send money to their families back in the camp. “We met with the Ministry of Labor last week and they are new to working with refugees, and there are some unexpected issues from their end,” Wongsuban said. It can work “in real time”, Sharpe said.
De RiedMatten, who expects teething problems, said that maybe difficulties and surprises like the new initiative, the refugters of the authorities and refugees working together “it will be a success”.
Sharpe said the outcome of the initiative could set a precedent in the region as a sustainable solution for the refugee population.
Along with that, he said, Unhcr is working with the World Bank to collect economic data on the impact of workers. Aid agencies hope that work permits can be opened to refugees outside the camps. More than 5,000 refugees are estimated to be living in Thai cities.
“We’re really hoping,” Sharpe said, “that we’re going to move from a state of aid to reliance on decades of self-reliance.”