A total of eight Myanmar migrant workers working at a market in Mahachai have been abandoned by their employer, said Ye Min from Aid Alliance Committee (AAC) based in Thailand on January 26.

Seafood markets in Mahachai are closed and workers have nothing to do. So the employer doesn’t want the workers and sent them on a car to be abandoned. Their driver abandoned them at a roadside between Bangkok and Mae Sot. The authorities took them to a quarantine center and will take a swab test on them, he said.

They will inquire about the employer and may take action against him. Some of the workers have documentations and some don’t, he added.

“Thai government has ordered that the authorities are not allowed to detain workers who don’t have documentations but the migrant workers cannot go past the assigned place. Workers in Mahachai cannot go out of the province,” he said.

Some employers are violating labour rights and abandoned them if they don’t need workers. Some employers are good on the workers. He wants the government officials to point out the facts in compared with the laws related with the employers in meetings held by both governments, he said.

Thailand Prime Minister blamed migrant workers including Myanmar migrant workers for the outbreak of COVID-19 in Samut Sakhon Province and some factory owners abandoned their workers.

On December 28, 18 workers from Samut Sakhon Province are found in Samut Prakan Province abandoned by their employer and officials from Myanmar Labour Attaché Office helped them to check their health.