Two migrant girls drown fleeing the police

Posted on March 10, 2010
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Burmese migrant workers caught by Thai police

Two Burmese sisters are dead after they drowned in a creek in the Thai resort town of Phuket. The girls were fleeing the police who had raided their living quarters.
The Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) reports that 20-year-old Nyo Nyo San and 12-year-old Myint Myint San both had migrant worker permits and had enrolled in the new nationality verification programme.
The verification program aims to certify migrant workers in Thailand and give them certain rights. But, the deaths highlight the problems facing migrant workers in the country.
The girls fled their quarters after two police cars arrived on Monday evening. Despite their permits, many migrant workers fear mistreatment by the Thai police. Myint Myint San was the first to go into the water, but she couldn’t swim and began to drown. Her sister drowned while attempting to save her.
Fellow workers say the police and other migrants watched from the riverbank. But, the migrants were too afraid of the police to help save the girls.
DVB quotes one local migrant as saying, “It doesn’t matter whether you carry the migrant worker card or not; some police will still arrest you and you have to pay them around 6000 baht ($US180) in order to be released.”
The mother of the two girls blamed the police for their deaths. “I will not forgive them,” she told DVB.
Last month, Human Rights Watch released a new report, ‘From the Tiger to the Crocodile’ detailing the abuse of migrant workers in Thailand.

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