Photos of the Situation of Migrant Workers from Burma


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A young migrant worker laboring in the weaving industry of Mizoram, India. There are about 10,000 migrants from Burma who work illegally in this state of India. (Photo: Aung Myo Min)

 

One of the many factories located in the Mae Sot, Thailand area which employs Burmese workers for low wages. (Photo: BLSO)

 

Migrant workers from Burma typically live in areas of poor sanitation and overcrowding. This picture shows a migrant living area in Mae Sot, Thailand. (Photo: BLSO)

 

Thai police arresting Burmese at a temporary checkpoint in Mae Sot, Thailand. The people arrested are often allowed to go if they pay the police a certain amount of money. Otherwise they are taken to the immigration detention center to wait for deportation to Burma. Arrested people are forced to squat like this for extended periods of time until they are taken away by truck. (Photo: Erwin )
Out of fear for arrest, deportation, or loss of money to police, many migrant workers hide out in fields or forests near their place of employment if they hear of police arrest operations. Here the shelter is often inadequate and people lack access to basic necessities. Pictured here is a temporary shelter in Mae Sot, Thailand. (Photo: BLSO)
Migrant workers hiding in the forest near Mae Sot, Thailand in December 2000 during a police arrest operation. (Source: BLSO)

Migrant workers awaiting deportation at Halockni camp, Thailand.
(Photo: Aung Myo Min)

 

Migrant workers being herded into a police jail van for deportation in December 2000. They had been arrested the day before and spent the night in cramped conditions at a compound near the police station. (Photo: Ma Aindra)

A cattle truck full of arrested migrant workers heads across the "Friendship Bridge" between Mae Sot, Thailand and Myawaddy, Burma. It is a typical practice to force as many people as possible into these trucks, so that acute overcrowding and injuries often result. (Photo: Erwin )

 

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