Thailand
isn’t just a popular destination for European and American families on
vacation. Thailand – especially Bangkok and Pattaya – is also a hub for the
exploitative sex trade in the Southeast Asian region. While there is a common
perception that Thai people are always smiling, friendly and humble, there is
also a much harsher reality behind the paradisiac palm tree front. Women of all
ages, and even underage girls, are trafficked into Thailand’s sex trade. They
come from the poorer countryside of Thailand, but also from neighbouring
countries, through border towns such as Mae Sot in Western Thailand, on the
opposite side of Moei River to Myawaddy in Burma. Sometimes they find
themselves trapped in the sex trade after having been promised other types of
work; sometimes it is a ‘choice’ of their own to sell sexual favours, as a last
resort in a desperate situation. But, in some cases, women and girls are also
recruited on factories, by brokers who only intend to benefit as much as
possible on the sex workers, and some women also choose to leave low-paid,
hazardous, dirty, tiring and monotonous factory work for sex work that is said
to give more money for less hours. The question is – what could trade unions do
to protect women and girls in the sex trade?
Though the country is rich of many
natural resources, the people of Burma are generally quite poor and the
employment opportunities are fewer than in neighbouring Thailand. Decent work –
meaning, a work with a safe working environment, a pay that cover all the
necessary costs for survival, and a culture of respect for basic human and
labour rights – is nothing but an unattainable dream for most Burmese. Because
of tradition, State politics and the geographic location of the country in the
fertile tropical zone, most people are farmers. However, farming is an
unreliable source of income, since it depends on the weather and the climate. Natural
disasters, such as the 2008 cyclone Nargis, have showed that Burma is indeed a
vulnerable country when it comes to threats for the livelihood and food
sovereignty of the population. Moreover, it is widely recognized that soldiers
from the Burmese military have demanded rice and other crops from the civilians
on the countryside, and the Government is itself responsible for mass
confiscation of land, which is then sold for a prohibitedly low price to
foreign investors and State-owned companies of neighbouring countries. These
and many other factors have led to greater urbanisation. Now, people in even
higher numbers than before are looking for jobs in the services sector in the
bigger cities of Burma and in the factories in the industrial zones. But, even
though these jobs provide the workers with a somewhat more predictable income than
farming previously did, far too many employees have to work under inhumane
working conditions for a pay that barely make ends meet. One commentator
writes:
“The prospect for
Burma’s uneducated (or undereducated) and unskilled young women exists in the
growing garment and manufacturing industries [...]. In the morning […] one will
see hundreds and hundreds of young women, mostly girls aged anywhere from 14 to
21 lined up while mounting trucks and then packed onto them, standing tightly
pressed against each other faced forward. Maybe 50 girls packed like cattle
onto a small truck then get ferried off to a garment factory or some other
factory to work all day for miserly wages of one or two dollars a day. [---] The
factory, being set far inside the compound, is almost out of sight or
surrounded by trees and vegetation. Taking photographs around these areas is
strictly forbidden and a bit risky.”
The hopeless situation in Burma’s
services sector and in the factories break down people to the point when some
of them feel it would even be better to sell sex than to sew thousands of cheap
garments every week. Even though prostitution and trafficking are illegal in
Burma, both are very common features all over the country. Men and boys are
more often recruited from the streets or are forcibly trafficked to another
place to work with physically heavy work, like construction work, or to join
the Burmese army. Women and girls, on the other hand, are more often trapped in
the sex trade or in domestic servitude. They are either brought to Yangon or
other, big cities, or sent abroad. However, the Government of Burma mostly
focus on prosecuting those who are responsible for the trafficking of Burmese
women to China, for the purpose of marrying Chinese single men, and therefore
trafficking within Burma or to countries other than China, and – even more so –
prostitution in general gets less attention from the authorities. It is even
reported that the police takes advantage of sex workers, by harassing and
threatening them so to get bribes. This means that women who drop off from
factories to sell sex instead usually don’t face harsh, legal punishment like
imprisonment, but are rather affected by constant fear and stress; they are
also losing much of their somewhat higher pay (compared to the low payments for
factory work) on bribes to the police. Some sex workers are afraid that they
will be questioned or arrested by the police, and therefore choose not to carry
condoms in their pockets or bags. When not being able to use condoms in their
work, they are exposed to a higher risk of contracting HIV and other sexually
transmitted infections and they also risk unwanted pregnancies. Sex work also
carries a social stigma, and sex workers are often ostracized from their
families and communities. When being unable to ‘return home’, it is even more
difficult for women and girls to leave prostitution.
Because of ostracism, poverty or a lack
of job opportunities, some women choose to leave Burma for other countries,
such as Thailand. Some are promised decent work with considerably higher wages
than in Burma. Others are forcibly moved from Burma to neighbouring countries,
and then sold either in transit towns, like Mae Sot, or at tourist
destinations, such as Pattaya, or in big and rich cities, like Bangkok. Women
who are trafficked to Thailand to work on factories or in somebody else’s home
face similar problems as in Burma. Their work is often dangerous and they
usually don’t have access to proper safety equipment. They have tiring workdays
and perhaps only one day off from work every week – if they are lucky enough to
be employed at a ‘good’ factory or by a ‘good’ family. Sometimes they have to live
where they work, either it be on a factory or in a private house. They are also
subjected to different forms of violence, but cannot take legal action, since
Thai laws only permits Thai people to found trade unions – in Burma, workers
have a legal right to set up trade unions, but that is only in theory; in
reality, workers who try to mobilize themselves in order to demand better
working conditions are still targeted by the police and by security staff. For
some Burmese women in Thailand, factory work is the first step before entering
prostitution or trafficking for sexual purposes. They are worn out being more
or less ‘owned’ by their employers – but when in the sex trade, they often find
themselves being ‘owned’ by a pimp instead, or being stressed over chasing
money just as much as they used to do at the factory. Some Burmese women have
been directly trafficked to Thailand to sell sex, and some of them have also
been sex workers in Burma before arriving in Thailand. Whatever their
background is, sex workers and those trafficked for sexual purposes share many
difficulties with the migrant workers. They also face human rights abuses and
they also find it hard to organize.
However, some efforts are being made to
end human trafficking and to curb prostitution. The Governments of Burma and
Thailand have signed a few Memorandums of Understanding concerning migration
and labour, and they cooperate to identify, find and prosecute brokers and
others who facilitate the sex trade between the countries. In 2008, Thailand
also officially declared 6th of June to be the Anti-Human
Trafficking Day. In connection to this date this year, several Thai authorities
arranged a rally in Southern Thailand against human trafficking, and 450
Burmese migrant workers also participated in the rally. It was an action of
solidarity with those trafficked and some of the workers surely had own
experiences of human trafficking. Actually, workers and trade unions could have
a crucial role in combating sex trade, if permitted to exist. Trade unions can
protect both human rights and labour rights of the workers and fight for decent
working conditions. If people employed at the factories would have a safe
working environment and a good pay, just to name a few things, they would be
less prone to leave their jobs for jobs in the sex trade, and brokers would not
have a chance to recruit women and underage girls at the factory or near the
compounds either. Some trade unions can also provide drop outs and victims of
trafficking with shelter and basic vocational training, so they could build a
new life and earn an income without being trapped in the sex trade again. Trade
unions can also raise the awareness of prostitution, human trafficking and the
related laws in force, among both the workers and the employers. The bigger a
trade union is, the stronger it is, and if permitted to grow in members, trade
unions could mobilise people to participate in rallies and to scrutinize and
pressure the Governments to comply with national laws as well as international
laws. Not least could national trade unions function as a link, exclusively for
the workers, between the Governments of Burma and Thailand on the one hand, and
the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations (UN) on the
other hand. After all, the Governments of Burma and Thailand bear a duty to
fulfil several important, international human rights treaties.
But this is just the possible role for
trade unions and the responsibility for treaty members like Burma and Thailand
– how about the international community, then? What could the ILO, the UN, the
ASEAN countries and the EU do to combat prostitution and sex trade in Southeast
Asia, while at the same time strengthening the rights of workers?
First, they could defend the right for
workers to set up their own, independent trade unions, by pressuring the
Governments of Burma and Thailand to adopt laws that are less strict, in order
to comply with international human rights standards. Second, they could
cooperate with these trade unions, based on international solidarity and other
core values – not least should they support trade unions with resources,
including financial ones. They could also function as whistleblowers, and
respond quickly whenever stricter laws are adopted or when existing laws are
interpreted narrowly, allowing human and labour rights abuses to take place. In
this way, the international community could protect the lives of individual
workers who join trade unions in hostile countries, such as Burma and Thailand.
Last, but not least, the international community could mobilise the leaders of
the world to make joint efforts to improve the lives of everyone, no matter
their country of origin or their current profession. As a current example, the
EU recently decided to grant Burma trade privileges under its Generalised
System of Preferences, which means that it will now be easier and cheaper for
companies based in Burma to export garments to the EU. While it might be a good thing that Burma
increases its exports – since this may increase the GNP and lead to more jobs
in the factories – there are also reasons to be cautious about the consequences
of this decision. The worst case scenario would include the shut-down of
several factories in neighbouring countries, leading to unemployment and
poverty in these countries, and the set-up of new factories in Burma, leading
to a ‘race to the bottom’ situation in which most international companies would
prefer to have their factories in Burma because the labour laws are weaker and the
wages are the lowest there. Currently, the minimum monthly wage in Burma is
only US$32, which is just a third of the minimum wage in Vietnam, as an
example. Therefore, the international community must work together with the
trade unions to raise the living standards of all workers and their families
and to promote global justice and to put an end to global poverty.
References and more information on this topic:
Ko Tha Dja, “ASEAN’s Garment Making
Industry’s Sex-Trade Connection”, Dissident
Voice, May 31st 2013, http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/05/aseans-garment-making-industrys-sex-trade-connection/ [22nd June 2013]
Pattaya
Mail, “Myanmar labor joining rally against
human trafficking in Yala”, 9th June 2013, http://www.pattayamail.com/news/myanmar-labor-joining-rally-against-human-trafficking-in-yala-26928 [22nd June 2013]
Saritdet Marukatat, “Thai factories
moving to Myanmar”, Bangkok Post, 20th
May 2013, http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/learning-from-news/351009/thai-factories-moving-to-myanmar [22nd June 2013]
United
States Department of State, 2013
Trafficking in Persons Report – Burma, June 19th 2013, http://www.refworld.org/country,,,,MMR,,51c2f3d118,0.html [22nd June 2013]
