Overseas Contract Workers

Poor workers from Burma (Myanmar) often come to Thailand, both legally and illegally, to work. Their working conditions and treatment are horrific.

In this editorial cartoon, being printed today in a Thai newspaper, I let the readers see these living conditions.

A few words of explanation:
1)
Burma recently had a typhoon steamroll it. Their government says there were only 22,000 casualties; outside sources put the number between 100,000 and 150,000. Roughly a million Burmese are now homeless.
Strangely, the Burmese government isn't making entrance easy for the aid workers waiting to come in.

2)
Burma's government has been accused of actually coming into Thailand to retrieve legal and illegal Burmese workers, and bringing them back to Burma to "vote on a referendum". Most Burmese workers in Thailand don't want to go back, afraid to miss work and afraid they won't be able to return to Thailand.

3)
Recently, 54 Burmese citizens being smuggled down to Phuket illegally for work, suffocated in a fishmarket truck en route.

4)
To force Burmese workers to be more productive, Thai law requires them to obey an 8pm curfew. A recent concert held for their benefit and to shed light on their plight COULD NOT BE ATTENDED by the Burmese people it was trying to help, because it ran past 8 PM!

5)
The 3,000% markup on Thai real estate sold to foreigners... is accurate. DON'T BUY PROPERTY HERE!!!