Irregular migration routes 51!

Irregular migration involves crossing an international boundary without proper authorization and/or remaining in the destination country when the visa expires (Salt, 2000; Koser, 2010). As a result of weak border control, inefficient emigration policies and the significantly higher costs to access a legal migration channel, people choose to migrate illegally to countries such as Thailand and Malaysia by bribing the border military officials (Set Aung, 2009). Accordingly, my field research indicated different routes that migrants used to enter Thailand by illegal means.

One of those ways was to travel to a border town and get help from locals there to cross the border. In U Myo’s case, he took two different trading trucks to reach the border. His words about his journey are quoted below:

When I reached the border, I asked some Kayan and Leeshaw24 _{people how}

to continue the trip. They took me on the motorbike because we could not travel in car at the place. They usually took us off the main road to avoid checkpoints. That’s their livelihood! (personal communication, June 11, 2014)

According to his comments, it is clear that the responsibility of the local transporter was only until the border area was reached25. The migrants usually continued their journey by themselves. Once the migrants arrived on the other side of the border, they could continue travelling as an ordinary traveller. Even if they were arrested by the Thai police and deported to the border area, they came and looked for the same broker who sent them before.

That was similar to U San’s description. He first recruited drivers who had driving experience to the border for his transportation business. He said he travelled from his village through Loikaw, Bawlake’ and Ywathit until he reached Hua Pon Long. It was necessary to pay a cease-fire group and government soldiers as well as police at

24 _{Ethnic minorities who reside near the Thai-Myanmar border.}

25 _{Migrants usually continue their journey from any of many border districts in Kayah State} such as Mae Sal’, Shadaw and Ywa Thit, etc.

all the checkpoints through to the border. He replied to my question about how he managed to transport migrants to the border by saying

It was necessary to know how to do things before doing them. So I asked people who had done this before, especially about which groups to pay to be able to travel. I had to pay tax at KNPLF26 office to obtain the pass. And I also paid police when the car passed the town’s gate. (personal communication, April 22, 2014)

Essentially, a service like this had to rely on good contacts with authorities who had control over the checkpoints27 _{on the way to the border. In the case of U San, he had} to get a ‘travel pass’ from a cease-fire group’s office at Loikaw to be able to travel to the border. People from Nan Kham village had different options to reach the border: for example, in U San’s case, he used a 4 wheel drive pickup for his transporting business while U Myo travelled to a border village on a trading truck.

The following map illustrates the irregular migration routes identified by return migrants from Nan Kham village.

26 _{Karenni Nationalities People Liberation Front}

27 _{There are more than 10 ethnic cease-fire groups in Kayah State. Those groups traditionally} control access to border areas. The government checkpoint stations are normally placed at the entrance and exit of every township usually manned by government’s soldiers or police. Likewise, cease-fire groups also have their own checkpoints on the way to the border. Therefore, to ease the journey to the border, transporters have to approach two or more parties to get permission separately.

Figure 4.1: Irregular migration routes from Kayah state to Thailand

The study identified two significant ways to migrate illegally from Nan Kham to Thailand. In the first situation, as reported by the ex-transporter (or local smuggler), migrants contact a local initiating smuggler to smuggle them through the destination place. In this case, the local smuggler will take them to the border area and transfer them to another smuggler who is responsible for the rest of the journey. As mentioned earlier, these smugglers mostly are independent individuals who are trying to make their ends meet. The smuggling charge may vary depending on the

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type of service. In the second case, migrants make their own journey to one of the border towns or villages near the Thai-Myanmar border. They would contact the agent or smuggler28 who is then able to transport them to the other side of the border or to the destination cities. It is important to note that bribing the military personnel, police or ethnic-armed groups is often included in either of the cases. These confirm the argument put forward by Bilgner and his colleagues (2006) that migrants have the power to choose from an array of services available to them in smuggling themselves across the border. For this reason, smugglers play a significant role in facilitating the process by approaching appropriate persons or groups prior to the journey.