Cambodian Migrant Worker, Mobilizer, Chanthaburi, Thailand

Hello! I am a migrant worker in Chanthaburi province, I have worked for more than ten years, and I started working in the seafood industry in Chanthaburi province. I would like to share about the current migrant workers' challenges. Most of them have issues related to document processing, particularly through MoU processes by brokers. Those brokers provide their service for employers without responsibility and for the two years visa extension services workers need to pay lots of money. Most migrant workers paid lots of money for those kinds of document processing fees so they don’t have much saving money left. Not just me or others are facing this kind of issue and not just that regarding document processing service fee collection, there were many groups of migrant workers deceived by brokers. They got the money and didn’t process documents for migrant workers.​ Furthermore, migrant workers didn’t know about their rights.​ They don’t know about their rights to use social security benefits or health services in the hospital. Moreover, there were some migrant workers ​ who were exploited for their wages, and some did not get paid by their supervisor/clerk who managed migrant workers directly instead of employers. This is the current issue that Cambodian migrant workers incurred frequently the most, there has been cases where migrant workers have be able to solve the issues by themselves. They went to the provincial department of employment where they were residents to demand their rights, some went to discuss it with the police, some got support from civil society organizations to indicate, protect, and help in processing for case issue remediation.