Recently I visited a coconut factory in Prachuap Khiri Khan in Southern Thailand. They were processing the husks of coconuts to make various products like charcoal and timber for construction. The aim of the visit was to see how they did this and the products that they sold on the market. But, my attention was more drawn to the kids of the workers who were playing around the factory grounds.
It is not known exactly how many migrant workers there are in Thailand. Estimates seem to vary between one and two million. Only a small percentage of these are legal. Most workers come from neighbouring countries such as Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. They are often poorly paid and work in labour intensive jobs such as in seafood, construction, agriculture and also domestic care. The kind of jobs that most Thais don’t want to do.
Although migrant workers are given little rights, the Thais will certainly miss them if they all leave as they make up about 10% of Thailand’s labour force. The workers at this factory told us that they were earning as little as 5,000 Baht a month which is far below the minimum wage in Thailand.
It is estimated that there could be as many as 500,000 migrant children in Thailand. Officially they are allowed to enrol in the local school but in practice this doesn’t happen often. Either they are not welcome or the parents cannot afford any of the school fees. So, as a consequence, their parents’ workplace becomes the children’s playground and school.
Some places this is not so bad. But construction sites and farms are not safe places for children to be. The coconut factory isn’t a good place for them too. Mainly because of the dust from the coconut husks. Their parents were wearing masks but the children weren’t. They were also helping their parents at times with manual work.
In many cases you can understand why parents don’t want to send their kids to school. Not only because they cannot afford to do this but also because they badly need money from manual work to help support the family. Thailand has often denied to the international community that they don’t have child workers. But these pictures tell a different story.
Where do we draw the line about kids helping their parents at work? I have sometimes seen them in places like noodle shops. Is this alright to help their parents after school? The kids at the coconut factory were also helping their parents sometimes. But then, this obviously goes from part-time to full-time very quickly as soon as they become able to carry out the work by themselves.