Published on January 17, 2005

T he pink abrasions on the forehead, arms and torso of Soe, 24, are common among tsunami survivors. But unlike others injured that day, Soe, a Burmese migrant, has spent the last three weeks hiding in the forested hills behind the beach, afraid to show his face.

Soe told the Scotsman newspaper that instead of seeking aid, medicine and shelter, he and hundreds of other Burmese were busy dodging Thai immigration trucks that prowl the devastated coastline rounding up foreign migrants for deportation.

Their plight has gone mostly unnoticed, but is now starting to surface.

Although certain Thai authorities would have been happy for it to remain that way, the international media presence in the South meant that it was only a matter of time before the situation came to light.

Soe, one of the tens of thousands of Burmese workers living and employed legally in Thailand, doing jobs that many Thais prefer not to do and for pitiful wages, is now being treated like a criminal.

His crime: being Burmese.

Before the tsunami struck, Soe worked in a beachfront hotel, serving drinks to European tourists and pruning the tropical gardens.

Now he’s on the run, fearful and hungry.

In the days following the tsunami, the Thai police accuse Burmese migrants of looting from ravaged beach resorts.

Anyone who knows about the treatment of Burmese living in Thailand by certain sections of the Thai authorities took these claims with a grain of salt.

The Thai-language press, however, picked it up on the looting accusations and ran with them with typical anti-Burmese enthusiasm.

Before the tsunami struck, at least 70,000 migrants were registered in Phuket and PhangNga .

In the past two weeks, at least 1,000 migrants have been arrested and deported to Burma, though none have been charged or put on trial for theft.

Some believe the Burmese were blamed as a scapegoat. Admitting Thais were carrying out such heinous crimes against their fellow countrymen so soon after this terrible disaster would possibly have been a little too much to bear for some people. A few days after the Burmese accusations, it was reported that some volunteer workers on Phi Phi were found with possessions taken from bodies.

On the same day all 200 workers from the same foundation left Phi Phi in a hurry.

Ironically, the grief-stricken Burmese who lost family in the tsunami and who want to go back home are being prevented from doing so by their employers, with bosses complaining that they will not be compensated by the government for the fees paid to employ the workers.

Unbelievably, it seems the Immigration police have no power to take these people from their employers.

The situation then takes on a bizarre twist:

Burmese who have jobs and want to go home are prevented from doing so, while Burmese who have lost their jobs because of the tsunami and who do not want to go back across the border are being forced to do so.

This heartless and inhumane attitude by employers goes a long to defining the way many Burmese are treated by some Thais.

Some Thai authorities maintain that if the Burmese come forward they will be treated the same way other foreigners have been treated.

If these statements are genuine, this wouldn’t be the first time different sections of the government have worked against each other on the whim of their departmental, sectional or local bureaucratic bosses.

And the paddy wagons roaming the hills behind Khao Lak’s beaches looking for Burmese to deport belie those reassuring statements.

Thailand’s efforts in post-tsunami relief are being praised around the world. If anything is to blight that performance, this is it.

And don’t expect to hear any protests from the junta in Rangoon.

They care even less about their own people than certain sections of the Thai bureaucracy.

Phil Macdonald

The Nation

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