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July 2015 SEA NOMADS IN THAILAND AND BURMA LIVING ON THE EDGE Life for the stateless Moken people is getting more difficult as they struggle with poverty, deprivation and exploitation. By Chee Yoke Heong Third World Network Features Down to just a few thousands, the Moken people in Thailand and Burma continue to face discrimination and other human rights violations as they eke out a living in the margins of society. As sea nomads, the Moken people is a little known ethnic group comprised of just 3000 who live mostly in small boats of Burma’s southern coast and another 800 who live in Thailand., Many do not have citizenship and are therefore vulnerable to human rights abuse and are deprived of access to medical care, education and jobs. In its latest report Stateless as Sea: The Moken of Burma and Thailand, the Human Rights Watch (HRW) document the plight of the Moken who face poverty, marginalization and discrimination and how their rights are often being violated by state authorities. “Far from the idyllic image that tourism promotes of the Moken people, these sea nomads face increasing restrictions and attacks at sea, and systematic discrimination on land,” said Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW in a press release. “By effectively denying them citizenship, the Thai and Burmese governments make the Moken easy targets for exploitation and other threats to their very existence.” In Burma, the Moken is listed as one of the 135 ethnic races of Burma under the 1982 Citizenship Act but the issuance of national ID cards to the Moken has been inconsistent making travel difficult within Burma, according to the press release. Citizenship would also means the Moken would have access to services such as social welfare, education and health which many now do not enjoy. The Moken often suffer human rights violations and exploitation by the authorities especially the Burmese navy who commit abuses including extortion, bribery, arbitrary arrests and seizure of properties, according to the HRW report. A Moken man by the name of Gamut from Dung Island told Human Rights Watch: “The Burmese soldiers sometimes shoot at our boat while we are fishing…They point their guns at us so we jump into the water. If we show them that we have money then sometimes they stop bothering us and don’t take anything else. If we decide to stay on an island, or fish around it, then we have to pay the island head – and these are also Burmese soldiers.” Adds Won, Moken women: “Whatever the Burmese navy wants, we have to give it them.” In Thailand, the Moken also face similar predicament where many do not have citizenships. Though the Thai government since 2008 has allowed stateless children and adults to register and acquire Thai citizenship, bureaucratic obstacles and difficulties meant many still are not registered. According to HRW, to qualify for citizenship, stateless persons must have a birth certificate, prove they have resided in Thailand for at least 10 years or show a blood relationship to a Thai citizen through DNA testing. But most Moken have no blood relation to a Thai citizen while many do not have an official birth certificate because they are often born in villages or boats by midwives. Also, many of them cannot meet the residency requirement because they spend long periods of time outside the country due to their nomadic lifestyle. The Moken’s traditional way of life in Thailand is under threat due to restrictions imposed by marine conservation regulations and laws. For instance, the Surin Islands Marine Park’s regulations ban the Moken from chopping trees to build or repair boats and huts. They are also not allowed to gather sea products to trade thus depriving them of an income. While the presence of tourists in Surin Island provided job opportunites to some Moken, the majority however, are unemployed. The Moken also face exploitation from middle men who often exploit their vulnerability to coerce them into undertaking illegal and dangerous fishing practices such as dynamite fishing. One Moken man, Jui, has this to say about his plight: “I used to be a diver. When I was a teenager, there was no limit for Moken fishermen. We could go anywhere from Phuket to Surin Islands and beyond to catch fish, shrimps, lobsters and shellfish. We brought our catch ashore to the middlemen who would sell them in downtown markets or to beachside restaurants. I only received a small amount of money from those middlemen. Life was not comfortable but we had freedom to go wherever we wanted to go. “But then around 16 years ago, government officials told us that we could not fish around Surin Islands anymore. We could not catch turtles, sea cucumber or giant clams. They said those animals are protected. They set so many rules and restrictions on our ways of life. More and more areas have become restricted. Fuel is expensive. My family now cannot earn enough from fishing. I come out on the beach, talking to tourists and begging money from them. I can speak Thai. Some tourists wanted to know my stories and took pictures of me. They gave me money. It is embarrassing. But at least I could bring cash back to my family.” On land, the Moken people also face forced eviction since they do not hold land titles to traditional shore areas where they live for part of the year, said HRW. In light of the plight faced by the Moken, the HRW has called on the Thai and Burmese governments “to protect and promote the rights, including providing a pathway to citizenship and protecting them from economic exploitation that threatens their way of life” as well as to “ensure that the Moken, as people indigenous to the Mergui archipelago and the Andaman sea, are treated in accordance with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” – Third World Network Features. -ends-
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