Bangkok assault turns Myanmar workers’ ID protest into online rights debate

Mizzima

An assault on a Myanmar migrant labour leader outside the United Nations office in Bangkok on 1 November has sparked a heated online debate in Thailand this week over whether migrant workers have the right to protest.

Veera Saengthong, leader of the Bright Future migrant worker group, was punched and kicked by members of two Thai royalist groups while calling on Thailand to close its Certificate of Identity (CI) centres. Workers say the military regime, in power since the 2021 coup, uses the CI process to collect a 2 per cent income tax, control their remittances and gather personal data.

Thailand’s opposition People’s Party condemned the attack, saying migrants deserve the same legal protection as Thais. On 3 November, Arnond Sakworawich, an associate professor at the National Institute of Development Administration, wrote on Facebook that Veera was a threat to national security and urged the Interior Minister to deport him. Many comments under his post agreed, with some asking who employs and funds Veera. Others warned that deportation could create diplomatic problems for Thailand.

On 5 November, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said he had not yet received a report on the matter. Thailand’s human rights commission has accepted Veera’s complaint.

Meanwhile, a Myanmar migrant workers’ committee says it has collected more than 1.2 million signatures asking the National Unity Government to issue identity documents instead of the CI. The figure has not been independently verified.

Thailand hosts an estimated four million Myanmar workers, the largest Myanmar migrant community abroad.