Violence against Women Migrant Workers in Thailand
Charnchao Chaiyanukij MD*
Affiliation : * Department of Rights and Liberties Protection, Ministry of Justice
A paper on “Violence against Women Migrant Workers in Thailand” will show the situation of
women migrant workers in Thailand, why they have to come to Thailand, what kind of job they do, how they
are abused and exploited by employer in many types of violence and how the Thai government manages to
solve the problems and assist them.
The term or definition of “violence against women-VAW” and “discrimination against women” is
provided and based on the definition stated in the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against
Women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).
Readers will see that violence against women is a form of discrimination committed on a basis of sex. In other
words, VAW is a clear violation of women’s inherent human rights including the rights to life, liberty, and
security of person, equality, equal protection under the law and freedom from all forms of discrimination.
More than one hundred thousands of women illegal migrant workers work in Thailand. They come
from countries in the Mekong Sub-region namely Myanmar, Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam and China (Yunnan
province). As they come illegally and have low level of education and working skills, they are vulnerable to
exploitation, abuse or face violence. In general, they work in small factories, domestic work and restaurant.
They are forced begging, forced prostitution or work in a slavery-like condition.
Root causes of illegal migration and VAW are interrelated and occur in both sending and receiving
countries of migrant workers. Poverty, demand and supply sides of labor, level of education, no knowledge of
their own rights, impact of capitalism and gender issues, are mentioned as original factors of migration and VAW.
The Thai government has national policy, plan, instrument and measures to cope with in- migration
of illegal workers. Not only government agencies are active to solve the problems and assist the women
migrant workers, but also non-government and international organizations as well as the UN agencies are
working seriously to assist them and protect their rights.
Keywords : Violence, Women, Migrant
