Mae Sot, which sits on the Thai-Myanmar border, has a well-earned reputation as a gateway to Myanmar’s civil war and the scam compounds run by human traffickers, which have been subjected to a Chinese-backed crackdown by Thai authorities over recent months.
The frontier town is also a haven for refugees. Mai Sot has an organic population of about 40,000 but has attracted an additional 250,000 people from Myanmar, who have fled the country’s bloody civil wars and are in dire need of humanitarian assistance.
But according to Dave Welsh, country director for the Solidarity Center in Thailand and Myanmar, their sheer numbers have also attracted business, in particular, the garment industry and big brands, in search of the cheap labor they require to maximize profits.
Aiding their quest is the security situation. Mae Sot, about 490 kilometers northwest of Bangkok, is hemmed in by mountains, tight Thai security, and strict visa regulations, which ensure that Myanmar’s refugees have little choice but to stay put and take local jobs for paltry sums.
Welsh spoke with The Diplomat’s Luke Hunt about their plight and exploitation and his push for a platform that would enable workers to sue employers through Thai courts, a condition that unions want incorporated into future free trade agreements with the likes of the European Union.
Mae Sot, he says, is the next ground zero for the region’s labor struggle, adding that unions also want the 10 members of ASEAN to act as a trade bloc and enforce basic international workplace standards, particularly in the garment industry, which remains a key employer across the region.
Welsh has worked with the Solidarity Center, an international labor rights organization based in Washington, D.C., with operations in 60 countries, for about two decades. He is a former country director in Indonesia, Malaysia, Cambodia, and Bangladesh.
