Protection Of Cambodian Migrant Workers In Thailand: From The Perspective Of Bilateral And Regional Cooperation

Uneven economic development in Southeast Asia region has made millions of people to conduct migration from their “countries of origin” to seek employments in other “countries of destination” within the region.Migration of workers has indeed contributed to prosperous economic growth for both labor-sending and labor-receiving states,and particularly the “Association of Southeast Asian Nations”(ASEAN)for its aspiration for “Economic Community.” Cambodia has witnessed massive flow of its people crossing borders and working in Thailand for a few decades.Majority of these Cambodian migrants did not have legal documents for their lawful migration and employment in Thailand.Their illegal border-crossing and working in Thailand make them become “irregular migrant worker”,who cannot receive protection from the “Thai Government.” Despite reaching a few bilateral arrangements between Cambodia and Thailand,the influx of these irregular migrants from Cambodia did not decrease.Since 2007,ASEAN issued the regional labor management policies,for all its members,including Thailand and Cambodia,to effectively implement.However,these bilateral and regional arrangements did not effectively cope with the escalating number of “irregular migrant workers” of Cambodia into Thailand,as clearly indicated by the unprecedented deportation of irregular Cambodian migrants from Thailand in June 2014 until 2017.It was until 2018 that most migrant workers from Cambodia finally received legal documents from Cambodian authorities to directly work on the legal document provision to Cambodian workers in Thailand.The thesis argued that the effective protection of “Cambodian migrant workers” in Thailand cannot only be done by institutionalizing labor migration managements through bilateral agreements and arrangement without the active participation from Cambodia as the labor-sending state.The ineffectiveness of bilateral agreement and arrangements was partly due to lack of active involvement of Cambodia.Regarding regional cooperation,the thesis contended that despite non-legal nature of ASEAN policies,the effectiveness of these policies rests with firm implementation from all member countries and active cooperation from the labor-sending country,particularly Cambodia to protect its workers in Thailand.Active participation and direct operation of Cambodian authorities in carrying out bilateral arrangements on legal documents provision open the gate for “Cambodian migrant workers” to access protection in Thailand,while Cambodia's active implementation on ASEAN policies supplement the capacity of labor protection awareness among Cambodian workers abroad.