A report into migrant labour says employers believe imported workers do not deserve the same rights as Thais.

The study published yesterday said employers restricted movement of their migrant staff, including locking them up at night.

These and other troubling findings are included in the report "The Mekong Challenge - Underpaid, Overworked and Overlooked: The realities of young migrant workers in Thailand".

It was conducted by the Institute for Population and Social Research at Mahidol University with the support of the International Labour Organisation (ILO). It examines the exploitation of migrant labour and is part of a series on human trafficking and labour migration in the Greater Mekong Subregion.

The report said 60 per cent of domestic workers were forbidden from leaving their workplaces.

Restriction of movement was imposed on 43 per cent of workers in the agriculture, fishing and manufacturing sectors. Employers guaranteed their migrant staff could not go anywhere by confiscating identity cards.

Most migrant workers involved in the study were from Burma. There were a small number of labourers from Laos and Cambodia. The survey was conducted between February and October last year.

Almost 700 workers in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon, Chiang Mai and Tak were interviewed. They were employed in four sectors.

Researchers interviewed employers and job-placement agencies.

"Some 70 per cent of employers said migrant workers should not leave the workplace," ILO consultant and research director Elaine Pearson said.

About half the employers in all sectors agreed "migrants should be locked up at nights to ensure they do not escape", the report said.

Eight per cent of migrant domestic helpers complained employers locked them up.

However, the report noted that mobile telephones had allowed migrants, especially domestic workers, a means of communication.

Key indicators of exploitation faced by migrants included physical violence and non-payment of wages.

Between seven per cent and nine per cent of fishing, manufacturing and domestic workers reported physical abuse by employers.

Forty-one per cent of migrant domestic helpers earned Bt1,000 or less a month.

Pearson said that "50 per cent of employers believe migrant workers should not have the same rights as Thai workers".

The report may contradict a commonly held belief that job-placement agencies are often migrant-labour traffickers. It found less than 10 per cent of migrants had secured jobs through agencies.

The report makes 29 recommendations to the government and agencies.

Among them is the need for a public-awareness campaign about the shortage of migrant workers and ways in which their communities can live in this country in a "positive, peaceful and nurturing way that benefits both locals and migrants".

Subhatra Bhumiprabhas

 The Nation