A “mafia” of recruitment agents is trapping Myanmar migrants to Thailand in debt bondage despite a 2017 law meant to fight exploitation in the kingdom’s notoriously shadowy job market, activists and workers say.
Migrant labour — much of it from Myanmar — has propped up Thailand’s economy for years, with foreigners working everywhere from factories to fishing boats, part of a global chain to produce standard supermarket items such as frozen shrimps, ready meals and pet food.
After allegations of slave labour and trafficking prompted the European Union to threaten a ban on Thai products in 2015, the kingdom’s ruling junta has scrambled to clean up industries reliant on a migrant workforce.
The new law that came into force in July last year was meant to crack down on a shady recruitment process, which left desperate migrants vulnerable to corrupt brokers and exploitative companies.
