Migrant Maids Frequently Abused, Study Finds

By Mi Mon Kyae

Ma Aye Than, a migrant from Mon State, was working as a maid in a Bangkok home for more than a year when she was accused of stealing a 10,000 baht clock from her employer.

Her boss called the police. “If you don't want to go to court, tell the truth,” she was told.

Eventually, Ma Aye Than's employers realized their son had taken the clock. They asked the maid from Mon State not to be angry with them. But she decided to stop working for the family. “I felt sad and angry,” she said.

Ma Aye Than is one of an estimated 100.000 migrants who work as maids in Thailand . Many of them face frequent threats, while others work with no holidays, low salaries and the fear of physical abuse. Some are essentially locked up in the homes.

These were some of the findings from a report called “Migrant Domestic Workers: From Burma to Thailand .” The report, produced last year in English, was scheduled to be published in Burmese and Thai on Nov. 23.

It was translated into Burmese so the parents of domestic workers would have a better understanding of the abuses their daughters faced in Thailand , said Khaing Mar Kyaw Zaw, one of the report's coordinators.

She said the report could also help Thai people have more sympathy for Burmese maids and could help them act more kindly toward them.

The report was abused on 133 in-depth interviews and a survey of 528 migrant domestic workers in Mae Sot and Chiang Mai. The survey took about six months.

The research team worked with the Institute for Population and Social Research at Mahidol University in Thailand . The report was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation and the United Nations.

According to the report, the goal was to provide information for policy makers and those who help migrant workers find better ways to protect women and girls.

The average working day for migrant maids lasts between 14 and 18 hours, the survey found. Their jobs include a wide range of duties, such as cleaning the house, washing and ironing clothes, cooking, caring for children or the elderly, tending animals, washing cars, working or cleaning in the employer's business and gardening.

The report says maids have no contracts or clear descriptions of their working time, pay or job responsibilities and working conditions.

Many experience physical violence. A 17 –year-old Karen maid was nearly beaten to death earlier this year, and spent about two months in a Bangkok hospital, according to The Nation newspaper.

Her employer always beat her for working slowly, and after working four months she still hadn't been paid her promised salary of about 4,000 baht per month, the paper reported. The maid's employer struck her with a flat object on the skull and body, and the maid needed about one inch of stitching in her left arm and her back.

If the courts find the maid's employer guilty, then appropriate punishment for crime could send a message to other potential abuses “that this kind of behavior would not be tolerated,” said Allan Dow, communications officer for the Mekong anti-trafficking project of the International Labor Organization in Thailand. Also, if her wages were held back, she should be able to claim that money, Dow said.

Dow said that the girl may have ended up in a situation where, because she may have been in the country illegally, she felt she couldn't leave the home of the employer to seek help for fear for fear of arrest and deportation.

Another maid, Ma Di, from Kachin State , was beaten for her slow work in a rice shop. The 17-year-old maid worked hard, cooking three pots of sticky rice at a time, she said, but her employer still hurried her. When the sticky rice spilled onto the floor, Ma Di said she was beaten on her hip.

‘I had no time to rest and no holiday,” said Ma Di, who earned about 1,000 baht, a month but now lives with her husband and son in Chiang Mai.

“They have no holiday, no security, and no limit on working time,” said Naw Paw Htoo Htoo of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) in Chiang Mai.

According to the Migrant Domestic report, nearly one in 10 women and girls in the study were victims of physical abuse. The others were subjected to sexual advances and several were victims of rape.

Ma Di's employer touched her hips lightly when she rested in her bedroom. He put a finger to his lips and said not to yell because he didn't want his wife to know about it. But Ma Di shouted and he left her room, she said.

Ma Aye Than told a similar story. She said her aunt's employer put his arms around her aunt's body when she was wearing a sarong. But she escaped from him. She was so afraid of facing another situation like that she called her nephew and immediately left the home.

Many maids feel trapped in the homes where they work. Ma Aye Than, for example, said she never left the house even though she needed to buy important personal things.

The domestic worker's report noted that women and girls were not allowed to attend community lectures on health-care issues. Maids find it difficult to do something about their situation because they work in isolation, experts say.

“If the factory workers don't agree with their employers, they can demonstrate together. But the maids can't demonstrate like other migrant workers,” said Naw Paw Htoo Htoo.

MAP, which began in 1999, runs monthly meetings for migrants from Burma in Chiang Mai called the Women's Exchange to share experiences and to discuss human rights, women rights, and labor rights.

According to the Mahidol University report, all organizations and the government should seek the inclusion of migrant voices in developing policies and practices to decrease the abuse, exploitation and trafficking of migrant domestic workers.

Young migrants need to be aware of the hazards of cross-border migration, especially if they are entering the destination country without the proper documentation to remain in that country and work there legally, said the ILO's Dow.

Moreover, he said, to prevent this, migrants should always attempt to work legally in a foreign country and be aware beforehand that they may end up in an abusive situation.

Ma Kyae Kyae said her employer was kind to her and never discriminated against her.

“My employer sent about 16,000 baht to a border bank so that I could go to Bangkok ,” she said, adding that her salary is about 4,000 baht.

Another maid from Mon State now working in Bangkok said she was only paid 2,500 baht, but stressed, “This house is safe for me.”