Migrants face arrest and exploitation in Thailand’s shadow economy

Thailand has just reopened its border to Myanmar workers, but a cumbersome application process and deepening poverty continues to push them down illegal paths.

Frontier MYANMAR | 26 MAY, 2022

In 2012, while still a teenager, Ma Cho* began walking down the well-worn path from poverty in Myanmar to a life of gruelling work in Thailand. Now aged 25, she left her village home in Ayeyarwady Region’s Pathein Township at 15 and found work on the floor of a factory producing Brand’s Essence of Chicken tonic in Samut Sakhon District (known also as Mahachai) near the Thai capital Bangkok. With her earnings, which far exceeded anything she could get in Myanmar, she was able to send at least K200,000 (US$150) a month to her parents. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck in early 2020, she travelled home to be with them, thinking she’d soon be back working in Thailand.

However, months passed and the border remained sealed, with the Thai government prioritising keeping out COVID-19 over restarting the economy, which heavily depends on the labour of Myanmar migrants.