Children’s rights campaigners say school closures have drawn many migrant schoolchildren into illegal, low-paid work in seafood trade.
CHIT Su has been stuck at home peeling crabs with her grandmother since her school for Burmese migrants closed last year in southern Thailand. Even working together, they make less than a daily minimum wage.
Ten such schools in Ranong province shut after an August 2019 raid by Thai officials that targeted Burmese teachers without proper work permits, and advocates say the closures have driven many former pupils into illegal seafood industry jobs.
“This is hard work ... if I study I’ll get to do a job that’s less tough,” said Chit Su, 15, whose name has been changed to protect her identity.
“But now, if I don’t help my grandma, we won’t have any money.”
She and her grandmother earn 240 baht (RM32) a day – less than the 315-baht (RM42) minimum in Ranong, and a drop in the ocean as they try to clear the family’s 8,000baht (RM1,065) debt.
Chit Su is among some 2,800 Burmese children who have been affected by the raid on her migrant learning centre, Ranonghtarni, which led to the arrest of more than 30 Burmese teachers and forced the school to close.
Nine other educational centres funded by charities and private donors in Ranong halted classes soon afterwards, fearing they could also be raided. One has since reopened.
The Education Ministry said it was tracking down former pupils who are still not attending classes in order to enrol them in public schools, non-formal education programmes and community learning centres.
Like Chit Su, many of the former students now work at private fish markets or at home shelling crabs for a multi-billion dollar industry that has faced global scrutiny in recent years over the abuse of Thai and migrant workers.
The Thomson Reuters Foundation interviewed 11 child workers in Ranong who were working in the industry without permits.
Children’s rights campaigners said the school closures had drawn many migrant schoolchildren into illegal, low-paid work just as the Covid-19 pandemic raises the risk of child labour.
“The consequences (of the closures) were much more severe (than the officials) predicted – it resulted in child labour in the fishing industry,” said Adisorn Kerdmongkol, coordinator at the Migrant Working Group, a network of NGOs helping migrants.
“This is worrying ... and made worse with Covid-19,” he added.
Millions of children worldwide could be pushed into work as schools remain shut and families struggle to survive the economic fallout of Covid-19, the United Nations has warned.