Thai and Cambodian
officials agreed Tuesday to quash "rumours" of a crackdown by Thailand's
new junta on illegal migrant workers after more than 185,000 Cambodians
fled home.
The migrants
-- who help keep major Thai industries afloat but often lack official
work permits -- have streamed across the border since Thailand's
military regime warned last week that illegal foreign workers face
arrest and deportation.
The
junta has since insisted there is no crackdown and blamed false rumours
for the exodus of what could be, by some estimates, the entire
undocumented Cambodian population in Thailand.
"We need to work
closely together to allay fear among the Cambodian labourers in
Thailand," said Cambodian ambassador Eat Sophea on Tuesday, adding it
was not the policy of the Thai administration "to crack down on
labourers regardless of their (legal) status".
After
talks in Bangkok with the Thai foreign ministry permanent secretary
Sihasak Phuangketkeow, she also dismissed rumours of the shooting and
abuse of Cambodian migrants by Thai authorities -- among the factors
believed to be triggering the exodus.
"The reports about
shootings, the reports about other abuses are rumours and are not true,
it's been taken out of context. We agreed to work together in order to
clarify any issues," Eat said.The two countries also agreed to launch a hotline on labour issues.
"We agreed to set up some form of a hotline... to communicate requests for clarification for assistance to facilitate those labourers who wish to return to Cambodia," the ambassador said.
- 'Scared of being arrested' -
At
the main border crossing in Poipet -- a bustling town home to several
large businesses, casinos and hotels -- around 9,000 Cambodian migrants
arrived in Thai military trucks and police cars on Tuesday.
The
total number of Cambodians returning from Thailand via Poipet and
smaller border crossings has now reached 188,000, said Kor Sam Saroeut,
governor of the northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey where the main
checkpoint is based.
Bun Veasna -- who was employed as a construction and seafood
worker in Chonburi province southeast of Bangkok -- was escorted into
Poipet by Thai police along with his brother on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old said he decided to come home after hearing that the Thai army would arrest all illegal Cambodian migrants, and that some had even been killed by the military.
"All
the Cambodians in my area have returned home. We were scared of being
arrested and jailed or killed there. We did not feel safe," he said.
Thailand's
military regime has strongly denied it has been forcing Cambodian
labourers out of the country and dismissed reports of killings as
"groundless rumours".
Last Wednesday it had threatened to arrest
and deport all illegal foreign workers, but the foreign ministry has
since stressed the "great importance" of the role which migrant workers
play in the economy.
Pot Sith, another
Cambodian returnee who worked in Thailand without a permit, told AFP he
fled the country after army officers warned him he faced arrest.
"They
asked us to return home, otherwise they would arrest us. So we felt
scared and had to return," said Pot, who worked at a brick factory in
Chonburi.
In the past Thai authorities have turned a blind eye to illegal labourers because they were needed when the economy was booming.
But
now the country is on the verge of recession after the economy
contracted 2.1 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of
2014.
The International
Organisation for Migration has previously estimated that around 180,000
undocumented Cambodian workers live in Thailand. It is unclear exactly
how many now remain.
There has been no comparable exodus to Myanmar or Laos, which are also major sources of manual labour.
This
has raised questions among some analysts, especially given that the
majority of migrant workers in Thailand come from Myanmar.
"I
suspect that the Cambodian mass returns compared to Myanmar workers'
minimal returns so far reflects the more sensitive political
relationship between Thailand and Cambodia," migration policy expert
Andy Hall said on Monday.
The
coup in Thailand on May 22 followed years of political divisions
between a military-backed royalist establishment and the family of
fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin was a close ally of Cambodian premier Hun Sen and this may help to explain the exodus of Cambodians, said Hall.
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