PHNOM
PENH, Cambodia (AP) — Tens of thousands of Cambodians have fled
neighboring Thailand to return home, fearing a crackdown on migrant
workers under Thailand's new military government, a senior Cambodian
official said Saturday. Activists said the workers had been forced out
of the country, but Thailand denied the accusation.
More than
84,000 workers have returned this month through the border crossing at
the western Cambodian town of Poipet, said Kor Samsarouet, the governor
of Banteay Meanchey province, where Poipet is located. About 40,000
crossed over on Friday alone, and 10,000 returned to Cambodia on
Saturday morning, he said.
The U.N.-affiliated International
Organization for Migration gave similar figures. Earlier in the week, it
said more than half of the migrants were women and children. "Aside
from transport, there is also a growing need for food, water, health
care and shelter," the IOM said in a statement.
The trigger for the exodus seems to have been comments by Thailand's military government, which took power in a coup last month, that it would crack down on illegal immigrants and those employing them. Several were reportedly fired from jobs and sent home, and the belief spread that both legal and illegal workers were being ejected.
The numbers of
those fleeing swelled as unsubstantiated rumors circulated that Thai
authorities had shot dead or beaten several Cambodian workers. Thai
authorities have denied the rumors and sought to quell concerns about a
crackdown, adding that they have plans to systematize migrant labor.
The Cambodian government has sent scores of trucks to Poipet to take the workers home.
Cambodians,
working both legally and illegally, fill low-paying and undesirable
jobs shunned by most Thais, as do migrants from Thailand's other poor
neighbors, especially Myanmar.
Cambodian Labor Minister Ith
Samheng told reporters that about 200,000 Cambodian migrants had been
working in Thailand, just 80,000 of them legally. Other estimates of the
number of workers are higher.
As the number of Cambodians seeking
to leave ballooned this past week, Thai immigration authorities joined
hands with the military to help transport them to the border, said Thai
Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee, stressing that the process
was meant to provide convenience to the Cambodian workers, not to
forcibly expel them.
"The Thai authorities realize the importance
of migrant workers from neighboring countries toward driving Thailand's
economy forward," he said. "As a result, we would like to revamp and
integrate the management system, as well as to get rid of exploitation
from smugglers, in a bid to prevent abuses of the workers and human
trafficking problems."
The Cambodian Human Rights Action
Committee, a coalition of 21 nongovernment organizations, saw the matter
differently, posting an open letter Thursday deploring what it
described as the Thai junta's decision to deport Cambodian migrants en
masse.
"The Thai military violated the human rights of
undocumented Cambodian migrant workers when it forcefully expelled them
from the country, placing them in crowded trucks," the letter said,
accusing the army of subjecting the workers to "cruel, inhumane and
degrading treatment."
Cambodia and Thailand have a history of
strained relations. Many Cambodians regard their bigger and richer
neighbor as pushy, and the two nations have had several armed skirmishes
in the past decade over disputed border territory.
Thailand's new
military leaders also distrust Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen as a
friend of former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted
by an earlier coup in 2006, and there have been accusations that
Cambodia sent terrorists to Thailand to foment trouble on his behalf.
Thai
army and paramilitary rangers in the past few years have also been
accused of shooting dead several Cambodians they caught allegedly
carrying out illegal logging in frontier areas.
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