Migrant workers

Devarathnam Yogendra ( 28 ) is the complainant in a bribery case against IP Wijesuriya of the Hatton Police Station, who has been indicted on a charge of obtaining bribes. This charge has been filed on the basis of a complaint made by Yogendra on November 6, 2010 and it is alleged that the police […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following statement released by the State Enterprises Workers’ Relations Confederation (SERC), the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF) and the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC) regarding the International Migrant’s Day. The organizations are asking the Thai government to revoke policies which […]

Dear friends,   We wish to share with you the following article, A plea for Rizana Nafeek by Paula Fielding published in Arab News on November 5th, 2010.   Please also see the following Urgent Appeals: AHRC-UAU-042-2010; AHRC-UAU-041-2010; UA-207-2007, UP-097-2007, UP-093-2007; Statements STM-003-2009 and STM-258-2008; and Press Release: PL-023-2007 issued by the Asian Human Rights Commission regarding this matter. Asian Human Rights Commission […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) wishes to forward to you the following press release from The State Enterprise Workers Relations Confederation (SERC), the Thai Labour Solidarity Committee (TLSC) and the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF). The press release urges the UN Secretary General to instruct related UN agencies to urgently investigate […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Burmese migrant workers in the city of Khon Kaen in north east Thailand, holding a peaceful protest against their employer for illegally keeping their legal documents, had allegedly been fired upon by gunmen. To frighten them, the gunmen fired shots into the community […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received updated information regarding 75 bonded labourers working in a brick kiln in Bangalore who were released on 16th and 17th, September. The AHRC has released a hunger alert caseurging the administration of Balangir district as well as of Bangalore city to secure redress for the labourers […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that a mother and her six month old child are currently facing food and health insecurity caused by bonded labour. The family living in the Balangir district of Orissa regularly migrated to Bangalore for the last two years to earn their daily food by […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that the Pakistan Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, has refused the renewal of passports to a Pakistani family allegedly on the instructions of intelligence officials of Pakistan. One official from the embassy privately told the family that intelligence agencies have objections on granting the renewal […]

A woman domestic worker in Saudi Arabia nailed 24 times Mrs. L.T. Ariyawathi (49), a mother of three has returned from Saudi Arabia after less than five months of employment. Within a short time of her return she was hospitalized for an operation to remove 24 nails from her foot and a needle implanted by […]

(Friday 18th June 2010) On 2nd June 2010, Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva issued an order setting up a Special Centre to Suppress, Arrest and Prosecute Alien Workers Who Are Working Underground. This centre will manage a crackdown against unregistered migrants in Thailand, most of whom are from Burma. Five Regional Working Groups will implement […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission The Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM) is one with the exploited women of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that over two million migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos working in Thailand may face deportation after 28 February 2010. Over 80% of these migrants originate from Burma and face ethnic and political conflict as well as continuing economic deterioration in their homeland, which […]

URGENT Monday 18th January, 2010 To: The Honorable Prime Minister Mr. Abhisit Vejjajiva We, the undersigned, continue to be concerned for the safety and security of over 2 million migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos currently working in Thailand. We are particularly concerned for the situation of migrants from Burma who account for approximately 90% […]

The Thai Government recently reiterated its policy to formalise the status of around 2 million migrants from Burma working here. Nationality verification (NV) is apparently required because these migrants left Burma without permission and entered Thailand “illegally”. What with an abundance of brokers assisting them, and the fact that wide swathes of the Thai economy […]

October 1, 2009 – The Lee Myeong-bak administration has begun yet another concentrated crackdown against undocumented migrant workers, which is supposed to go on from October until November. In the past we have seen clearly just how filled with death and injury, violence and human rights abuses these ‘concentrated crackdowns’ are. Migrant workers have fallen […]

Dear friends, The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has learned that 125 Dalit families have been forced to leave their village after they voted in the lower house parliament election. Earlier in the year upper-caste members had assaulted the village council head, a Dalit, when he refused to vote for their favoured candidate.  He registered […]

Dear friends, We wish to share with you the following statement from the Universal Periodic Review Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of 17 human rights, women’s rights, labour and indigenous people’s rights NGOs from Bangladesh. Asian Human Rights Commission Hong Kong ————- A Statement from the Universal Periodic Review Forum of Bangladesh, a coalition of […]

Dear friends,  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) is concerned to report that a Sri Lankan girl charged with the death of a baby in her care still faces the death penalty in a Saudi prison, despite strong flaws in her case and her pardoning by one of the baby’s parents. Rizana Nafeek has now […]

The Human Rights University Network – Sur and the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) invites all interested parties to send in their contributions for the Special Issue of the Sur Journal on Human Rights of People on (nº 10, first semester of 2009). Sur – International Journal on Human Rights is published twice a year, […]

(Hong Kong, July 25, 2008)  The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) supports a petition seeking the suspension of a levy, not only for new but for existing contracts of Foreign Domestic Helpers (FDHs), to avert threats to their job security. On July 17, the Hong Kong Labour Department announced it would seek an amendment so […]