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Migrant Workers Rights Network gets 2020 Human Rights and Business Award

 

Voltaire Veneracion

20 November 2020

Last 17 November 2020, the second day of the annual United Nations Forum on Business and Human Rights, Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) received the 2020 Human Rights and Business Award.

MWRN is a grassroots member-based association that works to protect the rights of migrant workers who live and work in Thailand, the majority being from Myanmar.

(photo: Credit to MWRN’s Facebook page)

The organization was founded in 2009 by nine Myanmar migrant leaders after seeing extensive exploitation and abuse of migrant workers in Thai factories, the seafood industry, agriculture, and construction.

MWRN trains workers on their rights, investigates abuses, helps workers negotiate with employers and officials, advocates for policy change, and promotes access to justice.

The organization helps workers use workplace grievance mechanisms and legal processes. It also works to prevent human trafficking and forced labor.

The award, now in its third year, recognizes outstanding work by human rights defenders addressing the human rights impacts of business. It is accompanied by a US$50,000 grant from Human Rights and Business Award Foundation.

The grant recipient was announced to a global virtual audience by Anita Ramasastry, Chair of the UN Working Group on Business and Human Rights, on UN Web TV and by the Foundation’s board in a brief online video.

“One of the special qualities of MWRN is that it was founded by Burmese migrant workers, and migrant workers themselves drive the work of the organization,” shared Mauricio Lazala, deputy director & head of the Europe office of Business & Human Rights Resource Centre.

Lazala is a member of the Foundation’s advisory board that nominates organisations for the award. He and his fellow advisory board members, quoted below, serve in their personal capacity.

Defending migrant labor rights

“MWRN has done great work assisting migrant workers for more than a decade despite challenges coming from all quarters – Thai government, Burmese government, and Thai companies,” said Maddalena Neglia, Globalisation & Human Rights head of International Federation for Human Rights.

She is another member of the Foundation’s advisory board.

“I had occasion to witness directly their impressive work exposing abuses and helping provide remedies for affected people in Thailand in a very risky environment.”

Thailand’s export-oriented economy is driven by approximately 4 million migrant workers from neighboring countries, over 2.3 million of them from Myanmar.

MWRN has documented many cases of migrant workers in Thailand being subjected to abuses of internationally-recognized human rights and labor standards, including discrimination, excessive recruitment fees leading to debt bondage, forced overtime, unlawful salary deductions, failure to receive a living wage, passport confiscation and limited freedom of movement.

Thailand recently introduced regulatory reforms to its migration and employment process but enforcement is inadequate. And Thai law continues to prohibit migrant workers from forming their own unions.

MWRN has successfully intervened to help tens of thousands of migrant workers, and empowered migrant workers so they could demand their rights. 

By applying pressure on Thai employers, as well as overseas buyers of Thai products, and urging them to improve business practices, MWRN has helped improved industry standards in many cases. 

Unfortunately, most companies still rely primarily on third-party audits and voluntary agreements to improve working conditions, rather than binding agreements with workers that would provide access to legal recourse.

Harassment suits

“I admire MWRN’s strong commitment and persistence,” beamed Joan Carling, co-convenor of Indigenous Peoples’ Major Group (IPMG) for Sustainable Development and member of the Foundation’s advisory board.

“This is an organization of rights-holders who are fundamentally marginalized for profit and economic growth.”

Some Thai companies – including pineapple firm Natural Fruit Company and poultry firm Thammakaset – have brought multiple lawsuits against labor rights advocates (including MWRN staff) after they exposed widespread abuses. 

These tactics of weaponising the law against legitimate rights-holders have been strongly criticized by international human rights groups including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights), as well as by global trade unions, as they are unwarranted attempts to harass, intimidate and silence workers and human rights defenders. 

In 2018, the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights condemned those lawsuits by Thai companies, saying they were being used as a tool against legitimate human rights work and freedom of expression. 

Again, in 2020, the Working Group declared in a statement: “We are deeply troubled by the information we continue to receive about migrant workers, human rights defenders, academics and journalists facing ill-founded defamation cases by the company Thammakaset when they raise legitimate concerns about working conditions in this company.”

Rays of hope

“MWRN’s work in protecting the rights of migrant workers is exemplary,” says Harpreet Kaur, Business and Human Rights specialist of United Nations Development Programme – Asia Regional Hub and another member of the Foundation’s advisory board.

“The organization works with a range of stakeholders and provides a full spectrum of support and advocacy to migrant workers.”

Among constructive collaborations that MWRN has engaged in is with seafood products company Thai Union. The latter, with international brands like Chicken of the Sea, John West, Petit Navire and Rügen Fisch. has partnered with MWRN to promote the rights of its workers and promote social dialogue. 

In 2015 Thai Union announced: “To educate our migrant employees, overcoming language and cultural issues as well as informing them of their rights under Thai law is essential, which is why we have partnered with MWRN so as to draw upon their deep expertise in migrant worker labor issues.” 

Thai Union has pledged to ensure that all its workers, whether migrants or Thai, have safe, legal employment and are treated fairly and with dignity.

Yet, challenges remain.

MWRN reports that the COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for many migrant workers in Thailand.  Many have lost their jobs and are unable to provide for their families. 

Many are also excluded from economic relief packages; others have faced obstacles in securing the financial help to which they are entitled. 

Some businesses have forced their migrant worker employees to sign resignation letters to avoid compensation for ending contracts.

Honoring human rights defenders

In a press statement, the Foundation’s board members – Chris Avery, Regan Ralph and Valeria Scorza – reminded the world that the award, while well-meaning, is but a milestone in a long journey:

“We congratulate MWRN for its outstanding work toward securing just and humane treatment for migrant workers in Thailand. The award this year honors MWRN, and serves as a reminder of how much remains to be done to stop the widespread discrimination and abuses that migrant workers continue to suffer in Thailand and across the world.”

Many other Human Rights Defenders and civil society organisations working in BHR need recognition and support.

The following is a list of all the organizations doing innovative and empowering work that were nominated by the Foundation’s advisory board for the 2020 award:

Past award recipients

Migrant Workers Rights Network is the third recipient of the annual award. 

The 2019 award recipient was Al-Haq, an independent Palestinian organization which has documented and monitored violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law in Occupied Palestinian Territory by Israeli and multinational companies. 

And the 2018 recipient was Justiça nos Trilhos, an organization working closely with local communities in remote parts of Brazil – including indigenous peoples, peasants, and Afro-descendants – to address human rights and environmental abuses by mining and steel companies, in particular the multinational Vale.

Human Rights and Business Award Foundation is an independent non-profit foundation.  To ensure its independence, the foundation says it does not accept donations from any government nor any company. 

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