26,000 Doctors in Burma for a Population of 58 Million

For decades, Burma’s military rulers spent less on their citizens’ health – just US$2 per capita in 2010 – than almost any other country in the world. As a result, the country has suffered from a chronic shortage of drugs, medical supplies, equipment and nurses.

In a country where 70 percent of the 58-million-strong population lives outside of urban areas, most villages lack basic healthcare, so when people get sick they often have to walk for hours to reach pubic hospitals or clinics.

But, as IRIN’s latest film, Burma: Awaiting Change, [ http://www.irinnews.org/film/ 4893/Burma-Awaiting-Change ] shows, tangible improvements in healthcare take a lot longer than political reforms.

Most of Burma’s population live in rural areas, while health services are concentrated in larger towns and cities. This means the health needs of most of the population of more than 50 million are unmet, especially in areas where conflict between the government and various rebel groups or inter-communal violence still occurs.

In the last two decades, the number of maternal and child health centres has stayed the same, while rural health centres have increased by only 95 over five years, far short of the need. [ http://www.moh.gov.mm/file/health%20statistics.pdf ] Most centres lack supplies, equipment, drugs and professional support, according to the WHO.

There is hardly any infrastructure. Most of the people who require immediate health services are neglected at the local centres.

Violence

Conflict has only made it harder to reach people in need, say health workers. In Kachin State ongoing fighting has displaced more than 62,000 people, with 24,000 in government-controlled areas and close to 40,000 in rebel-controlled areas. Another more than 7,000 are thought to have fled across the border into China.

Violence has warped malaria control along the country’s border with Thailand, and frustrated attempts to keep mothers and their newborns alive in eastern Burma, where the maternal mortality ratio is more than triple the national average of 240 per 100,000 live births.

Recent inter-communal violence in Rakhine State, in the north, has turned a bad state of health access into a “desperate” one.

Seeking health workers

In 2011, the country had 26,435 doctors nationwide, but most (15,508) are in the private sector, where services are unaffordable to most the population. [ http://www.moh.gov.mm/file/health%20statistics.pdf ]

In 2009-2010, people spent an average of US$12 per person per year on healthcare, of which only $2 came from the government [ http://www.moh.gov.mm/file/health%20statistics.pdf ], with the rest being covered by NGOs and patients. http://www.whoBurma.org/en/ Section6_168.htm

In 2008, the government reported there were fewer than 15 health workers for every 10,000 people, short of the internationally recommended 23 needed to provide basic life-saving services.

Most villages lack basic healthcare and patients often travel for hours – in some hilly regions for nearly an entire day – to reach hospitals or clinics located only in towns, and which are often dilapidated and poorly stocked.

Only one-third of the estimated 120,000 people living with HIV in Burma, who should receive antiretrovirals in terms of WHO standards, are being treated, and the shortage of medicine extends to other serious illnesses, including TB. Burma is among the 22 countries with the highest TB prevalence worldwide. [ http://www.who.int/gho/countries/mmr.pdf ]

The economic sanctions have hindered development, collaboration and establishing investment in the health sector,” noted the UNAIDS office in Burma, referring to donors withholding development dollars to protest the country’s human rights record.

The country received close to $5 per person in overseas development assistance in 2010, [ http://stats.oecd.org/qwids/#?x=2&y=6&f=3:51,4:1,1:2,5:3,7:1&q=3:51+4:1+1:2+5:3+7:1+2:120+6:2005,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010 ] according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – among the lowest worldwide, and a 28 percent drop compared to 2009.

The country’s per capita health investment of $2 is among the lowest worldwide. [ http://www.moh.gov.mm/file/health%20statistics.pdf ] Despite recent increases in government health spending, [ http://www.whoBurma.org/LinkFiles/Areas_of_Work_WHO_Burma-CCS_2008-11_Ch2.pdf ] WHO said ill-equipped hospitals and a shortage of life-saving drugs are still crippling care.

Without taking into account local currency devaluation or population growth over the past two decades, government spending on healthcare increased from 464.1 million kyat in 1988-89 (approximately $530,000 at the 2012 official exchange rate) to 51.7 billion kyat in 2008-09 ($59 million). The government has pledged to quadruple the 2012 health budget in 2013. [ http://www.moh.gov.mm/file/Burma%20health%20care%20system.pdf ]

Given the scale of need, change will be incremental. It is difficult to tell how long it will take. but it could take at least 10-20 years to reform. the public health services [which] are limited and nowhere organized.

Muted World Reaction to Killing of Burmese Muslims

In June 2012, hundreds Burmese Muslims were butchered, and many more injured and made homeless in Burma as a result religious intolerance by the Buddhist majority.

Rights activists called for international monitors to safeguard the lives of thousands of Muslim Rohingya in Burma’s western Rakhine State following an outbreak of another round of deadly sectarian violence in October 2012.

“We are begging international observers to come and witness what is actually happening – to stop the violence and attacks on innocent civilians,” Mohammad Nawsim, secretary of the Rohingya Human Rights Association based in Bangkok, said.

His call comes one week after serious clashes, the second in less than five months, erupted between Muslim Rohingya and ethnic (mainly Buddhist) Rakhine across eight Rakhine townships (Kyaukpyu, Kyauktaw, Minbya, Mrauk-U, Myebon, Pauktaw, Ramree and Rathedaung) on 21 October.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs [ http://reliefweb.int/report/Burma/displacement-rakhine-state-situation-report-no-10 ], more than 28,000 residents were displaced, more than 4,600 homes and religious buildings destroyed, and at least 76 people killed.

These figures do not include several thousand people who have fled their houses by sea, nor those who have arrived in Sittwe (the Rakhine State capital) since 21 October, OCHA said.

100,000 in IDP camps

The latest displacement follows a major outbreak of communal violence in June after the alleged rape of a Rakhine woman by a group of Muslim men in May, which left some 75,000, mostly Rohingya residents, displaced, the vast majority in nine overcrowded IDP camps in Sittwe.

The latest unrest brings the number of displaced now in camps in Rakhine to more than 100,000, putting a further strain on ongoing assistance by the government, the UN [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96636/BURMA-UN-calls-for-urgent-action-on-Rakhine ], and its partners on the ground.

Timely action and unhindered access are critical for life-saving assistance to reach these people, according to the UN, which is having difficulty accessing all those in need.

“As a clear benchmark, there should be unfettered ’round the clock’ international access,” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch (HRW), including the presence of a UN human rights monitoring office [ http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Pages/WelcomePage.aspx ] in the country. “This is a top-level critical issue that needs to be addressed.”

On 27 October, HRW released satellite imagery [ http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/related_material/HRW_Kyaukpyu_Damages_v1%20Copyright.pdf ] it had received showing extensive destruction of homes and other property in a predominantly Rohingya area of the coastal town of Kyauk Pyu – one of several areas of new violence and displacement and where a major pipeline carrying Burmese gas to China begins.

More than 800 homes and buildings were destroyed, with many Rohingya in the town fleeing by sea towards Sittwe, 200km to the north.

“There has been no serious drive to prosecute those who have been instigating this hatred and violence,” said Chris Lewa, director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya.

Fragile stability

Meanwhile, an uneasy calm has reportedly been restored across Rakhine State following a significant increase in security forces on the streets of affected towns and villages, state media reported.

The government-owned New Light of Burma [ http://www.Burma.com/newspaper/nlm/index.html ] said the region “is under control”.

According to the authorities, there are now 5,000 police officers deployed, as well as 1,000 border security forces. Additionally, the Burmese army reportedly has 10,000 troops in the region.

Lewa noted, however, that even during the ongoing state of emergency, monks [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/96562/BURMA-Government-rejects-OIC-office-request-for-troubled-Rakhine ] were allowed to demonstrate, basically promoting hatred by demanding the expulsion of Muslims.

“People in power, people in authority need to be taking a strong stance to not tolerate this any more,” Lewa said.

Earlier, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Burma, Tomás Ojea Quintana, said the international community should ensure that “human rights considerations remain at the forefront of its engagement with Burma during this period of transition”.

The Burmese military government, far from trying to resolve the problem and protect the minority, has been silently conniving with the rioters by creating greater hardships for the Muslim minority.

The reason of this June 2012 riot is unknown except for the periodical outbursts of the Burmese Buddhists to show their might and vent their anger on the helpless minority. It is commonly accepted that the June 2012 massacre of Burmese Muslims was intentionally orchestrated by the rioters in collaboration with the government. Yet the world, including the UN, is conveniently silent.

As in India, anti-Muslim riots are nothing unusual in Burma.

Violence in Burma against Muslims have been erupting periodically since the 1920s based simply on religious intolerance by the Buddhist majority.

The Muslims of Burma mainly belong to the Arakan state in western Burma. They are known as Rohingya or Burmese Muslims. The term “Rohingya” has been derived from the Arabic word “Raham” meaning sympathy. Muslim settlements began being established in the Arakan province of Burma since the arrival of the Arabs in the 8th century.

Presently about 800,000 Rohingya live in Burma. The United Nations describes them as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities.” Yet it has never bothered to help them.

Religious freedom for Muslims in Burma has been systematically curbed. In the post 9/11 era, random accusations of “terrorism” against Muslims have become a common form of persecution and harassment by Burmese Buddhists. Burmese Government does not consider Rohingya Muslims as citizens and they are hated by the Buddhist majority. Rohingya Muslims in Burma have long demanded recognition as an indigenous ethnic group with full citizenship by birthright. But the Government regards them as illegal immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh and denies them citizenship.

The notorious master hypocrite and undercover CIA agent, Dalai Lama, continues to globe trot without mentioning a single word of the dangerously growing Buddhist intolerance in Burma, Thailand, Tibet and across the world. Such intolerance and persecution invariably result in resistance by the oppressed. Many Muslims have joined armed resistance groups, fighting for greater freedom in Burma.

On June 3, 2012, eight Muslims returning to Rangoon in a bus after visiting a Masjid in the Arakan province were attacked by a mob of hundreds of Buddhists and slaughtered brutally. An eye-witness reported that after the mass murder “the culprits were celebrating triumph spitting and tossing wine and alcohol on the dead bodies lying on the road.”

“These innocent people have been killed like animals,” said Abu Tahay, of the National Democratic Party for Development, which represents the country’s much-persecuted stateless Muslim Rohingya community.

The Rohingya Muslims of Burma have continued to suffer from human rights violations under the Burmese junta since 1970s. Over the years thousands of Rohingya refugees have fled to neighboring countries like Thailand, Indonesia and Bangladesh etc. Even as refugees they have been facing hardships and have suffered persecution by the Thai government. In February 2009, a group of 5 boats packed with Burmese Rohingya Muslims were taken out and abandoned in the open sea by the Thai army. Four of these boats sank in a storm and one was washed ashore near the Indonesian islands. The few survivors who were rescued by Indonesian authorities told horrific stories of being captured and beaten by the Thai military and then abandoned at open sea.

Being “peaceful” or “humble” (as claimed by their biased supporters) is a far cry concerning the Burmese Buddhists. Their vindictive temperament prowls for vendetta, waiting to use even the most insignificant occurrence as an excuse to perpetrate violence on Burmese Muslims. At any time, if there’s some ethnic disturbance between Muslims and Buddhists/Hindus in any other country, the Burmese Buddhists waste no time going on a murderous spry killing the Muslim minority in Burma. If there is the slightest of trouble between Muslims and non-Muslims in Indonesia, it’s taken as a pretext to kill Muslims in Burma by Buddhist mobs. The destruction of the statues in Bamiyan (Afghanistan), created an immediate excuse to commit violence against Muslims in Burma in 2001. The firebrand Buddhist monks demanded a Muslim masjid to be destroyed in retaliation. Mobs of Buddhists led by monks, vandalized Muslim-owned businesses and property in Burma, and attacked and killed Muslims in Muslim communities.

Gruesome images of murdered Rohingya Muslims in the recent June 2012 riots in Burma have been circulated on websites, resulting in protests in several Muslim countries and by various human rights activists around the world demanding justice & protection in Burma for the minority, but has fallen on deaf ears as usual, getting little or no coverage from mainstream news channels.

As if the above was not enough, the government of Bangladesh has ordered three international NGOs to stop providing services to Muslim ethnic Rohingya refugees from Burma, fearing such services will encourage an “influx” of people fleeing recent sectarian violence in the neighbouring country.

The international medical relief agency, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), Action Against Hunger, and the UK-based Muslim Aid were recently ordered to suspend their services in Cox’s Bazar, a district bordering Burma, where tens of thousands of mostly undocumented Rohingya refugees live in makeshift camps clustered around two government-run ones.

Calling the influx argument “groundless”, director of The Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya, said: “Basic health-related services are not a pull-factor, and no increase of population has been observed in these two camps.”

She said the problem lies in push-factors in Burma, including “violence, insecurity, mass arrests and aid boycott”.

Bangladesh’s prime minister declared in June that the country could not take in any more Rohingyas due to already strained services and a dense population.

The Rohingya are not legally recognized in Burma, where they have long struggled with a lack of access to healthcare, social services and education.

The Bangladeshi authorities estimate that there are more than 200,000 Rohingya in the country, of whom some 30,000 are officially registered in the government-run camps.

MSF confirmed that they had been ordered to stop services at its Kutupalong clinic in Cox’s Bazar, where they provided outpatient and inpatient care, maternity services, family planning, vaccinations and mental healthcare to 55,000 Rohingya and Bangladeshi patients in 2011.

MSF spokesman declined to comment on the ban, saying the agency is in discussion with the government and is “keen not to jeopardize ongoing talks”.

The ban is hitting an area with an already critical humanitarian situation. “Any expulsion would make conditions worse, especially during the monsoon, and not just for refugees but also for the local population, which these agencies also serve.”

Some 47 people died in recent flooding in Cox’s Bazar, a disaster-prone district that is among the country’s poorest, where one in every five children under the age of five is malnourished, according to the UN World Food Programme.

A spokeswoman for the UNHCR expressed the agency’s concern, saying, “We urge the government of Bangladesh to reconsider this request [to halt services."

Displaced Rohingya living "worse than animals"

As of October 2012, nearly 75,000 people living in temporary camps and shelters following inter-communal conflict in Rakhine State in June face deteriorating living conditions.

"Right now the displaced are facing health problems from diarrhoea, fevers and colds. A lot of them are living together in small spaces," said secretary of the Rohingya Human Rights Association (RHRA) based in Bangkok. "Their condition is worse than animals."

As of 25 September, the government estimated some 72,000 from the (mainly Muslim) Rohingya ethnic group and almost 3,000 people from the (mainly Buddhist) Rakhine ethnic group are displaced. They are staying in 40 camps and temporary sites in Sittwe and Kyauktaw townships, from where they are still able to access schools and work.

Immediately after the outbreak of violence in June, aid agencies visited areas in four affected townships and identified sanitation and clean water as major needs. At the time, only about 30 percent of the surveyed displaced persons had access to clean water, while six out of 10 people did not have any way to store it even if they secured some.

A number of camps had only one latrine serving 100 persons. Little has changed in recent months. Young and elderly Rohingya in the temporary camps along the road leading west out Sittwe (capital of Rakhine State) as well as Sittwe township are falling ill due to fetid living conditions.

Long-simmering ethnic and religious tensions between Rakhine State's majority population from the Rakhine ethnic group and its minority Rohingya population erupted in early June [ http://www.irinnews.org/Report/95631/MYANMAR-Rakhine-violence-sparks-concern ] after the alleged rape and murder of a Buddhist woman by a group of Rohingya.

Fear 

Meanwhile, Rohingya both in the camps and villages have reported arbitrary arrests and detention, and frequent phone calls with those in and around camps and shelters for the displaced.

“They send me messages and then I call them back but it’s still very dangerous for them to have mobile phones because the soldiers will search them often. They used Bangladesh mobile phones. The phone only works for a while so when I get on the phone they will give me all details such as how many people are missing and which villages they come from.”

Deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division based in Bangkok, said the displaced are “effectively restricted to camps by both the security forces and by the violent attacks they fear from the Rakhine community.”

Most Muslims have shuttered their former businesses and left Sittwe after the authorities ordered their departure, said director of the Arakan Project, an advocacy organization for the Rohingya.

While supplies and relief are getting into the camps, delivery is still hampered.

Many of the staff of the NGOs are local workers and are afraid to go to the Muslim camps – not so much that they are afraid to be attacked by Muslims in the camps, but they are mostly afraid that if the Rakhine Buddhists see that they are assisting the Muslims, they will be attacked by their own community.

According to a 4 September report [ http://www.themimu.info/Rakhine/index.php ] from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “humanitarian partners remain concerned that access is still limited to some affected areas and townships outside of Sittwe,” which includes aid groups working with Rohingya before the most recent bloodshed which have now been forced to discontinue their services.

International aid workers report being unable to get travel authorization to work in affected northern townships in Rakhine State, including Maungdaw, which borders on Bangladesh and where almost 500 homes were burnt down in the violence.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled persecution in Myanmar over the past three decades, the vast majority to Bangladesh in the 1990s.

International aid efforts

UN Secretary-General and Burma’s President Thein Sein discussed how to address the root causes of inter-communal tensions in Rakhine State, including through development efforts, on 29 September at the recent UN General Assembly meeting in New York. The president said the government would address the needs [ http://www.un.org/sg/offthecuff/index.asp?nid=2577 ].

The Burmese government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in mid-August to facilitate OIC partner organizations’ humanitarian assistance to displaced Rohingya. The head of international relief and development of Qatar Red Crescent Society, Khaled Diab, said his chapter will carry out relief work estimated at US$1.5 million [ http://reliefweb.int/report/myanmar/qatar-red-crescent-qrc-undertakes-relief-efforts-rakhine-province-myanmar-us-15 ] among displaced Rohingya over the next six months – and possibly longer depending on funding – in health, shelter, water and sanitation.

A multi-agency Rakhine Response Plan [ http://reliefweb.int/map/myanmar/rakhine-response-plan-july-december-2012 ] estimates it will take some $32.5 million to cover basic emergency needs until the end of the year for an estimated 80,000 displaced.

Most people in the camps believe they will never be able to go back to the town, even though the government says the camps are only temporary.

Aid groups working in Rakhine State are meeting in Myanmar’s capital – most recently on 22-23 September – to review longer-term issues of relief, rehabilitation and rule of law in the state.

According to the UN database which records international humanitarian aid, the Financial Tracking Service [ http://fts.unocha.org/reports/daily/ocha_R10c_C145_Y2012_asof___1210030204.pdf ], and not-yet-recorded recent donor announcements, some $11 million has been pledged or contributed to humanitarian assistance in Rakhine State this year.

Benazir was No Suu Kyi

Over the last few months, even steadfast supporters of Aung San Suu Kyi were questioning her decision to keep her party, the NLD from participating in Burma’s first elections in 20 years. However flawed the vote, the argument went, it offered a tiny window of opportunity for democratic-minded parties to get a foothold in Burma’s political life, and Ms. Suu Kyi should have seized it.

Ms. Suu Kyi’s party even split on this question.

Burma’s military regime introduced new election laws in March making it mandatory for political parties to register for the elections. Parties with members who had been convicted could not register unless they expelled those members. Suu Kyi had been convicted for violating the terms of her house arrest after an American swam to her Yangon lakeside home, where she was under house arrest, and stayed for two days before swimming back.

Ms. Suu Kyi faced two choices: stand down from the party so that it could contest the elections, or disband the NLD. She chose the latter. The decision was opposed by some members of the party who left and formed another party and fielded candidates in the election.

The international community too was somewhat disappointed that Ms. Suu Kyi had decided to forego pragmatism in her dogged and principled resistance to the junta. In the last few years, the campaign to have the Nobel Laureate released was flagging. The international community has been eager to do business with Burma, rich in all kinds of resources including minerals and natural gas. China got an early foothold, Pakistan followed, India did not want to be left behind.

The ASEAN community, never big on democracy activism, was also suffering from Suu Kyi fatigue. The U.S and Europe imposed sanctions in the 1990s, but they hurt the Burmese more than the junta. Plus, the U.S made exceptions to the sanctions.

It would have been convenient for the world’s conscience had Ms. Suu Kyi relented, and agreed to fight the elections that were held earlier this month under the junta’s thumb. But this simple longi-clad woman, shut away by the junta, remained unrelenting.

If only Ms. Suu Kyi had been a Benazir Bhutto, those tired interlocutors might have thought as they burnt the air miles between world capitals and Yangon in their efforts to have her freed.

Common factors

After all, there is so much in common between the two. Both were daughters of national leaders, born into privilege, educated in liberal political traditions. Both lost their fathers to the military’s machinations in their respective countries. Ms. Suu Kyi and Benazir both took their countries by storm when they returned home in the 1980s.

But the similarities end there. Benazir was a pragmatist. Helped by the U.S and the U.K, Benazir entered into negotiations with General Musharraf, to return to political life in Pakistan.

The General passed an ordinance that shut the files on corruption cases against her, and her husband Zardari. In return, Benazir assisted Gen. Musharraf’s November 2007 re-election as President.

The expectation was that she and Gen. Musharraf would rule Pakistan together, she as the Prime Minister and he as President. That would have eased the world’s conscience as it supported a military ruler seen by the West as essential to its plans in the region. He had become extremely unpopular in Pakistan but Benazir’s democratic credentials were to come to his and the world’s rescue.

That the rest of the script did not work out exactly in the way either side desired is another story. The deal with Gen. Musharraf was also not Benazir’s first compromise with the khakis. Even as Ms. Suu Kyi was spending her first year under house arrest in 1989, Benazir had decided that capitulation was the better part of valour, when it came to dealing with the Pakistan Army. Despite this, she was sacked in 1990, the Army playing a direct role in it. Re-elected in 1993, she went along with the military’s proxy war in Kashmir and its backing to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

In 1999, Ms. Suu Kyi’s husband died of cancer in the U.K. She had refused the junta’s permission to go and see him in his last days as it was clear she would not be allowed to return. That same year, Benazir left Pakistan to live in self-imposed exile in Dubai and London as the corruption cases against her began to pile up.

Benazir preferred to speak of her arrangement with Gen. Musharraf, worked out over two years, as a process of “reconciliation” and a “transition to democracy”. When questioned about it after her return to Pakistan in October 2007, she pointed to how she had extracted from him the promise that he would become a civilian president by the end of that year. As for the criminal charges against her, she dismissed them as having no basis and being politically motivated. She was certainly able to bargain for more concessions from Gen. Musharraf as his troubles grew through that year.

On the birth anniversary of its leader, the PPP instituted a new prize called the Benazir Peace Prize, and the first recipient was none other than Ms. Suu Kyi. The irony of it was lost on the party. In the PPP’s mythology, Benazir was the greatest democrat in the world and her killing only vindicated this.

Would it have been better for Burma and Ms. Suu Kyi had she done a Benazir-like deal with Senior General Than Shwe, aided perhaps by India and China? Politics, is after all, the art of the possible. Would the NLD not have fared better, had she allowed it to contest the elections, as compared to the pro-democracy parties that participated only to be wiped out by the pro-junta parties? Her boycott helped to expose the vote for the sham it was, but in the process, did she lose an opportunity to fight the system from within?

The answers can perhaps be found in Pakistan, where despite the transition to democracy, an illusion of people’s rule barely covers the reality of military dominance. The PPP holds the elected offices, but those who hold these offices know the limits of their powers.

Gen. Musharraf’s infamous National Reconciliation Ordinance which wiped out the corruption charges against Benazir left a bad taste in the mouths of most-right thinking people, and was hardly a mechanism for political reconciliation, as subsequent events have shown. It left Benazir’s and the PPP’s reputation in tatters. Had Benazir lived, she would have no doubt made the accommodations with the military necessary for her government’s survival. But she was killed, and her party holds the same people with whom she negotiated her re-entry to Pakistan responsible for her death.

Perhaps then, the question to ask is how different it might have been for Benazir and Pakistan had she done a Suu Kyi.

Three Million Burmese Ve Migrated

When Kyi Kyi Thein* and her teenage daughter took up an offer for work in neighbouring Thailand, they did not expect to be smuggled by sea and locked up in a shrimp factory.

Fortunately, they and 64 others were rescued by police in 2006. They stayed in Thailand for two more years during court proceedings against the shrimp factory and won the case, along with US$950 each in compensation.

Many Burmese, who have faced exploitation, violence, forced labour or forced prostitution abroad, return home penniless and are shunned as failures.

But for Kyi Kyi Thein and her daughter, the payment helped them to rebuild their lives. They received compensation, and it has really helped those victims to be reintegrated into the community. An estimated 32 percent of the population live below the poverty line, but of the millions of Burmese who attempt to escape poverty by working abroad, many accrue huge debts and repatriation can be difficult. 

There is a need to put more pressure on the destination country and the offenders there. If those at the origin [country] have to bear the burden, it is unfair.

Tough times abroad and at home

After arriving at the Ranya Paew shrimp factory in central Samut Sakhon Province, 50km west of Bangkok, Kyi Kyi Thein and her daughter were told that their earnings of 30 cents per kilogram of peeled shrimp would go toward a $1,000 debt for their trafficking fees.

For the next several months, they were forced to work 20-hour shifts and saw co-workers who tried to escape stripped and tortured. One worker peeled 18-20kg per day, but did not receive any salary until her fourth month – even then, it was only $5, according to the AFL-CIO-affiliated Solidarity Center.

Back home, villagers at first did not believe their story. “For four or five months, people discriminated against us,” Kyi Kyi Thein said during a visit to Yangon from their home in Bago Division. “They didn’t know the real story and thought we had been in prison.”

Even if they were working as domestic workers in the other country, the community thinks the girls are coming back from brothels or were being abused or sexually exploited by their employers. People call them bad women, and sometimes people refuse to buy the food or the things they are selling.

Sometimes the families had to invest some amount of money for their trip abroad. When they come back empty-handed, the families don’t welcome them back.

Destination Thailand

An estimated three million Burmese have migrated abroad but cited other figures suggesting that as many as five million might be living abroad, with Thailand the main destination.

Myanmar has a population of around 50 million.

The Thai government, in an effort to legalize migrants, has registered more than 800,000 Burmese, but there are another million undocumented labourers from the region in Thailand.

Since the 2007 establishment of the Myanmar police anti-trafficking unit, there have been more prosecutions. Myanmar police tallied 1,251 traffickers and 265 smugglers arrested between 2006 and 2009. Those cases were linked to 2,000 trafficking survivors and smuggled migrants – a mere fraction of the actual numbers, experts say.

The US State Department’s 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report has placed Myanmar among 13 countries not making sufficient efforts to combat trafficking.

* Not their real names