At the end of July 2018, Help without Frontiers, Right to Play Thailand Foundation, and Rights Beyond Borders held a presentation to launch the study they conducted on the situation of children on the move in Mae Sot. Children on the move are children who have come to Mae Sot either to study, because they followed their parents, or because they are orphaned and in need. The presentation and the study itself highlighted the many risks and challenges that go along with being a child on the move such as the dangers of traveling both across borders as well as internally. Indeed, groups of children cross the border regularly, using both official and unofficial routes. The available information on the situation of migrant children is unclear, so that few statistics are elaborated on children crossing the border on daily basis, children in public schools, children in Migrant Learning Centres, and children dropping in and out. Thus, identifying children that have been neglected and are in need of help is still extremely difficult.
The Mae Sot Immigration Office estimates that, every month, more than 2,000 foreign children cross the border with Myanmar and come to Thailand. Other statistics reveal that about 18,250 foreign children are enrolled in the education system in Tak Province. The majority of children (almost 60%) study in primary level education and more than half of them study in Migrant Learning Centres. Mae Sot is the district hosting the majority of Burmese migrant students of the area. As such, Mae Sot is the district with the highest proportion (75%) of children receiving education in the Tak Province (followed by 14% of students in Phop Phra, 4% of them in Tha Song Yang, 4% in Mae Ramat, and 3% in Umphang). Some are children of migrant workers who have lived in Thailand for long period. Most of these children study in Thai school and can speak Thai fluently. Most children studying in Thai schools tend to expect that they will be able to find a job in Thailand. Other children come to study to Mae Sot because their relatives and siblings persuade them to do it, they study in Migrant Learning Centres and cannot commucate well in Thai language. Half proportion of children in Migrant Learning Centres plan to return to Myanmar.
During the field study, it was found that children enter to various forms of employment. The exact age of children who entered into the workforce cannot be identified as it depends on each child’s context and on the situation that bring them to these types of jobs. Most of them engage in informal kinds of labour such as working in chicken farms, sorting out chicken feathers, sorting out beans, and collecting garbages, while others are hired as sellers in department stores or shops, vendors in the market, in the factories, in agriculture field, in casinos, and in contruction sites. The work that is done is often unsafe and bad for the health of the children, which increases the risks which they are already under.
There are number of children who are not enrolled in schools and unexpectedly quit schools due to their families’ economic condition that does not allow them to live their own life and study.
Children studying in schools have better access to information regarding their rights than children who cannot go to school. As a result, out of school children cannot understand the way to protect
themselves, including how to cross the border safely. Moreover, parents and caretakers lack awareness on the risks related to the use of violence and on child protection more in general. Awareness raising work is essential and should be done in family and community levels, particularly on the topics of violence within family and community, access to rights and primary services, safe border-crossing, and unharmful working environment for children that will not have impact on development of children.
Community mechanisms shall be developed so as to raise awareness amongst parents and for them to participate in child protection work, including knowing how to report about the incident.
The promotion of children's rights in the communities is a key to their protection, towards a brighter future.
If interested, you can download the power point of the presentation and a summary of the study here.
