Situation
The Thai Political unrest leads to many problems affecting neighbouring countries such as Cambodia. Cambodia is currently facing a massive return of irregular Cambodian migrants at the Poipet border crossing. Almost 170,000 migrant workers both legal and illegal were deported back as of Monday 16, 2014 (The Phnom Penh Post, 16 June 2014). They are returning home from Thailand amid fear of arrest by the authorities and unprecedented layoffs by their employers. Most of the migrants are undocumented and work in construction and agricultural industries for salaries of less than USD10 per day. The number of deportees has apparently been increasing day by day with approximately 25,000 - 30,000 deportees per day just at Poipet alone.
There is an estimation that over 150,000 people are irregular migrant workers and legal migrants are approximately 80,000 in Thailand (source: IOM, 12 June 2014). Reports from Banteay Mean Chey governor indicated that mostly illegal migrant workers are being deported and the plan is continuous until the end of the month. This is the largest-ever that Cambodia migrant workers are deported. The exodus has increased rapidly day by day but there is no way of knowing if this will continue, stabilise, or tail off. There are thousands and thousands of deportees struggling to get access to proper food and transportation to go home. As most of the deportees are illegal migrants, and the Thai military has suddenly sent those people home, the workers were forced to stop immediately and their wages are yet to be paid. The lack of financial availability poses difficulties for those deportees to purchase food and water from the market while waiting for the trucks to take them home. Most deportees are not from Banteay Meanchey where the Poipet border checkpoint is allocated, they are from different parts of the country which require more effort to pay for their own transport home.
Thousands of deportees are offloaded at a Poipet waiting point where space to accommodate the crowd is limited. As they are staying in open areas, they are exposed to harsh weather conditions, pregnant women and children are considered as highly vulnerable groups. The long journey from Central Thailand to the Cambodia border has also contributed to the weakening health of women and children, and some of them have even fainted along the way because the trucks transporting them were overloaded with many people.
Situation reports
- Food and water: When the returning migrant workers arrive at the Poipet dropping point, food and water are being distributed to them right away before they board other buses and trucks to their respective villages. For those whose home villages are in further distances including Prey Veng, Takeo, Kampong Thom, and Kampong Cham, take away food for them to eat on their way has not been responded. Due to the overarching number of aggregated deportees arriving at a sudden time at a certain point, crowd management to sort out who have been handed food and who need extra food to go on a long journey is a challenge. Caritas Cambodia is deploying a number of volunteers to go on the trip with the migrants to ensure that the passengers are having food to eat and the buses that are supported by the organisation are not overloaded.
- Transportation: In the meantime, buses to send the returnees back home are only available for the direction of Banteay Mean Chey, Battambang, Pursat, and Siem Reap. The government has ordered around 200 military trucks to transport the migrant workers at Poipet and other border sites. At Poipet alone, there are around 150 trucks are in operation to take the workers to various provinces in the country. Given the massive number of people wanting to get home, the trucks are often overloaded. Without any choices, pregnant women, expecting mothers, and children have to get on the military trucks and stand for a long time until they reach their destination. The populations that return home in the far distances need a better facility or means of transportation to ensure better protection.
- WASH: The continuous arrival of Thai trucks at Poipet has increased the populations at the border dramatically. After food distribution and the departure of Cambodian buses and trucks, it can be observed wastes are disposed on the streets as the number of bins is not sufficient and the available ones are already full. Because of the uncontrollable crowd, the location of the latrines is hardly seen and not easy to access. Some of the private latrines were used, but they are not accessible 24 hours a day. Mobile latrines were being installed more to facilitate the long queue. More latrines are recently accessible as offered by a hotel nearby, health centre, and other private owners. The need is considerably on the cleanliness of those available latrines.
- Shelter: Deportees who could not catch the buses and trucks back home after arrival from Thailand had to stay longer hours or overnight waiting for the vehicles to return. There are a few small tents installed on the streets, but it is not sufficient to accommodate the vast majority. Facilities for sleeping overnight are not in place as they were deported suddenly and did not bring any materials for sleeping, they are sleeping on the ground and rest their heads on their backpacks. To fill in the gap, proper shelter needs to be provided, where the returnees can stay safe from sun and rain and can stay overnight waiting for the vehicles.
Interim Report No 1 - Cambodian Deportees (6 Jul 2014)
Our Response
Caritas Cambodia Emergency team has been stationed on-site at Poipet, Banteay Meanchey, and have launched an Emergency Appeal for funds to support their programme to meet the urgent needs of the deportees which were communicated to CHARIS.
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Objectives
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Target
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Main Activities
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To fulfill the basic emergency needs for WASH, Food, Transportation and Temporary Shelter for massive deported migrant workers with high considerations of addressing women and children needs at Poipet -Khmer Thai border
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- Estimated 10,000 packs of meals and water per day
- 800 passengers are transported back home per day (K. Cham and K. Thom province)
- 600 - 700 people have access to clean latrines both day and night
- 2000 – 3000 people can rest in the tents per day
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- Install tents for temporary shelter
- Food and water distribution
- Transportation
to Kampong Cham and Kampong Thom
- Payment for
latrine services to increase access, and ensure cleanliness
- Coordination
with other response team and government authorities
- Ensure a secure environment for returnees particularly women and girls
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As the needs are urgent with more than 10,000 deportees arriving every day, CHARIS responded immediately with a grant of S$50,000 to help with providing for the immediate needs of the deportees.
