Cobiramou
(L), 11, who was released from a human trafficking boat with his
mother, points at pictures of people whom he recognises from the boat,
at a refugee camp outside Sittwe, Myanmar May 27, 2015.
Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters
BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A
Burmese woman working in Thailand hired a man to sedate and smuggle her
3-month-old baby across the border to relatives in Myanmar, researchers
said, describing a common "service" for desperate migrant mothers
fearful of losing their jobs.
Researchers whose study was published on Wednesday surveyed
114 women migrants in the six countries along the Mekong River about
their health, and found that many went to extremes to end pregnancies or
send babies home because of problems at work.
"A lot of people noted they will get fired when they get
pregnant when they are abroad... they will get fired and go home," said
Rebecca Napier-Moore, who wrote the report for the Mekong Migration
Network, an advocacy umbrella group of organizations.
The woman who hired the smuggler—a migrant in her 20s who
used to work at a fish canning factory near the —told researchers her
employer did not allow babies in the workplace and she could not afford a
babysitter.
"So I sent my baby with a broker to my parents in Mon
state, Myanmar," the woman was quoted as saying in the report. "You need
to pay a broker 5,000 baht ($150) for one baby" who they sedate with
drugs for the duration of the journey.
Brahm Press, director of the MAP Foundation rights group
based in the northern Thai city Chiang Mai, who led the research in
Thailand, said her account indicated the service was a known way for
Burmese women in Thailand to send their babies home.
"It's not uncommon. This is a service they (smugglers) provide," Press told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by telephone.
Millions of migrants cross borders to find work in the
Greater Mekong subregion, made up of Myanmar,Cambodia, Laos, Thailand,
Vietnam and Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China.
Thailand, the main destination country, hosts an estimated 3
million documented and undocumented migrant workers, 80 percent of whom
are from Myanmar.
Migrants are often unable or unwilling to access health
care in host countries because of discrimination, high costs, language
barriers, or fear of arrest and deportation.
The study said that of the women interviewed—who worked in
sectors including construction, agriculture, domestic work, sex work,
retail and manufacturing—41 percent lacked migration documents.
DANGEROUS ABORTIONS
The most shocking accounts in the report involved pregnant
women, very few of whom receive antenatal care. The study found that 57
percent of women worked at places with no maternity leave.
A former sex worker from Myanmar told researchers that a
Thai employer sent her friend to Myanmar for an unsafe abortion with an
untrained midwife.
"She put red medicine into my friend's vagina, and massaged
her pregnant belly hard. Blood came out after half an hour and then the
fetus," the unnamed woman was quoted as saying.
The cost of the abortion depends how far along the
pregnancy is, the woman said. "For aborting after one month of
pregnancy, we need to pay 10,000 kyat ($10). Some women die during these
abortions."
The report said that the women surveyed—62 percent of whom
had no health insurance - usually treat themselves and continue to work
while ill.
Many use home remedies and seek care from traditional
healers or pharmacies, where they can get drugs "faster, cheaper and
without the discrimination they might find in hospitals".
Because of language barriers or miscommunication, migrants
may get the wrong medication, or they may receive no advice about how to
take the medication, the report said.
"Counterfeit or poor quality drugs, overuse of antibiotics
and poisoning are risks of self-treatment in a region that does not
strictly regulate pharmacies or require prescriptions for most drugs,"
the report said.
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