Migrant mum plan a killer
If Labour Minister Padermchai Sasomsop's plan to send pregnant migrant workers home becomes a reality, he simply cannot escape being condemned for having blood on his hands.
He may argue until his face turns blue about his intention to bring down the use of child migrant workers by reducing the number of births of migrant children in the country, but he cannot expect anyone with a heart to buy this inhumane idea which is equivalent to forced abortion.
Mr Padermchai's plan has already created panic among pregnant migrant workers. They have their families here. They have other children to take care of here. They have work here. They are worried they will be unable to bring their newborns back with them. They also fear beifng cut off from their families due to the Immigration Department's red tape and simply because they don't have money to pay the traffickers to bring them back.
For them, there is only one choice: abortion.
It is inevitable these women will have to go quacks for such procedures. It is not because many underground workers are plagued by fear of arrest and deportation. Thai women are in the same shoes as them. Abortion is still illegal here, except in cases of rape or when the pregnancy is endangering a mother's health.
With quacks, the botched attempts to end pregnancies often cause the mothers not only injuries and physical handicaps, but also death.
According to the Public Health Ministry, nearly 1,000 women die each year from fatal infections caused by incomplete abortions. Yet every policy attempt to offer safe, inexpensive and legal services to end unplanned pregnancies and save women's lives is crushed fiercely.
Indeed, if Thai society does not care about its own women's deaths from unsafe abortions, why should it care about the ordeals and deaths of migrant women?
It is absurd, isn't it? Mr Padermchai's plan, which will harm Thailand's already grim reputation for treating migrant workers inhumanely, is actually designed to improve Thailand's poor record in tackling trafficking.
Last week, the US State Department placed Thailand in the Tier 2 Watch List for the country's consistently poor efforts to eliminate human trafficking. The message is clear. To avoid being placed in the bottom Tier 3 which would subject the country to a number of boycotts from the United States, the government needs to work harder to prosecute traffickers and corrupt officials as well as to end slave-like work conditions and start respecting migrant workers' rights.
To show Thailand is listening, Labour Minister Padermchai promptly announced his plan to improve the country's record by sending pregnant migrant workers back home.
Dumbfounded? You're not alone.
This is not the first time the Labour Ministry has proposed this idea. It keeps cropping up every few years. The last time was two years ago when the Democrat Party was in power.
Ironically, this goes to show that our politicians do have something in common regardless of their political differences. It's their total complete of human rights awareness and their total lack of heart, which is why the use of migrant workers in modern slavery conditions here remains so widespread.
If the government really wants to eliminate human trafficking, it must prosecute traffickers and corrupt officials. The judicial process must be revamped to speed up prosecutions. Numerous laws and regulations must be revised to decriminalise illegal workers in order to free them from labour exploitation and police extortion.
If the government wants to reduce the births of migrant children, it should provide women migrant workers with family planning services. If it wants to stop migrant child labour, provide the children with educational support. It's their right. And it's the country's gain. As Thailand ages, every child born here needs quality care in order to be part of a quality workforce.
In short, help is the answer. Not control. Not punishment.
The plan to send pregnant migrants home spells death for many mothers and unborn babies. Go ahead if the Labour Ministry wants to make Thailand appear a murderer on the world stage. If not, simply shelve it.
Sanitsuda Ekachai is Assistant Editor, Bangkok Post.
http://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/300019/migrant-mum-plan-will-spell-many-a-death
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