致命雞尾酒: 泰國的表裏不一
THE government in Thailand will not be looking forward to June, when America’s State Department releases its annual report on the trafficking of humans. As in recent years, Thailand’s section will make for nasty reading. It will, yet again, prove to be an embarrassment for America’s oldest ally in the region.
美國國務院將於6月發佈的《年度人口販運報告》對泰國政府沒有寄予太多期待，近幾年的報告中泰國形象不佳，作爲美國在這一地區最長久的盟友，今年的報告將再次使其難堪。The country likes to think of itself as a civilised and sophisticated society. But according to the State Department, when it comes to problems of illegal immigration and forced labour, Thailand is on a par with Afghanistan, Chad, Iraq and Niger. Thailand sits on the “Tier 2 Watch List”, a notch above the worst of the worst. If it slips down this year, as it might, it will join a rogue’s gallery including Eritrea, Sudan, Syria and Zimbabwe. If America’s usual procedures were followed, relegation would trigger sanctions against Thailand, including the blocking of relations with the IMF and the World Bank. That almost certainly will not happen—Thailand’s goodwill is too important to America. But that the possibility even exists is extraordinary enough.
泰國自詡爲文明先進的國度，而在非法移民和強迫勞動問題上，美國國務院認爲它和阿富汗、乍得、尼日爾等國可以相提並論。泰國被列入僅略好於最差者的“第二類觀察名單”，若今年其排名再次下滑（這有可能），它將被視爲同厄裏特里亞、蘇丹、敘利亞和津巴布韋一樣的流氓國家。一般情況下，美國將對降級國家採取制裁措施，包括切斷其與國際貨幣基金組織和世界銀行的關係。不過對於泰國來說這幾乎不會發生，因爲泰國的聲譽對美國至關重要。但存在這種可能性就足以引起重視。The Thai government has long overlooked abuses. About 2m legal immigrants and perhaps as many illegal ones keep several labour-intensive parts of the Thai economy afloat. Most of the immigrants are from neighbouring Myanmar; others are from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines and further afield. Undocumented workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Smuggled into the country by unscrupulous brokers, they are sold into factory and other low-end jobs in ways that can amount to debt bondage.
泰國政府長期以來對虐待工人現象熟視無睹。約200萬合法移民及數量相等的非法移民支撐起泰國經濟的勞動密集型產業。他們大多來自鄰國緬甸，還有的來自孟加拉國、柬埔寨、老撾、菲律賓和其他更遠的國家。無證工人極易受到剝削，他們被無良蛇頭販進國內，然後被賣到工廠從事低級勞動，淪爲債奴。
The shrimp industry has come under particular scrutiny. It is worth about $1 billion a year to the Thai economy. In the cavernous shrimp-peeling sheds in Samut Sakhon province south of Bangkok, observers have documented instances of workers suffering physical abuse, remaining unpaid and having their papers confiscated. In last year’s report on human trafficking, the State Department asserted that in Samut Sakhon, nearly three-fifths of workers “experience conditions of forced labour”.
每年爲泰國經濟貢獻約10億美元的養蝦業已受到特別調查。在曼谷南部龍仔厝府空蕩的剝蝦大棚中，調查員記錄下一宗宗案例：工人們遭受肢體虐待，被拖欠工資，證件被扣。在去年的人口販運報告中美國國務院稱龍仔厝府近五分之三的工人有“被強迫勞動的經歷”。At sea, in the shrimping fleets, it is even worse. Sompong Srakaew of the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation, an NGO, says that young Burmese often need to work for six months in order to pay off a bond to the broker who smuggled them in. Some are forced to stay at sea for several years. When the ships put into port, brokers patrol the quays to ensure that crews stay on the boats, out of sight of the authorities. A UN survey found that of 49 migrant fishermen interviewed, 29 said that they had witnessed skippers murdering crewmen when they were too weak or sick to work.
海上捕蝦船的情況更糟。非政府組織“勞工權利保護網絡基金會”的頌蓬??沙卡說，年輕的緬甸人往往需要工作6個月來支付偷渡費給蛇頭，一些人被迫留在海上呆好幾年。漁船進港時，蛇頭在碼頭上嚴密巡邏，確保船員們都留在船上以避開警察的視線。在聯合國對49名外來漁民所做的一項調查中，29人說他們親眼目睹了船長殺害體弱或生病而喪失勞動能力的船員。Unsurprisingly, such reports prick the conscience of American consumers. A backlash in the United States has grown against Thai seafood products. In September one large seafood importer and distributor, Mazzetta, suspended its dealings with a supplier, Thai Royal, after a film exposed working conditions at one of its factories. Consumer boycotts in America, however, appear not to be hurting the shrimp industry much. Action taken by the American government would hurt much more.
毫無疑問，這樣的報告激起了美國消費者的義憤，針對泰國海鮮產品的制裁行動已經展開。9月一部電影揭露了供應商“泰國皇家漁業公司”一處工廠的工作狀況，之後美國一家大型海鮮進口和分銷商“瑪茲塔”暫停了和它的貿易。不過美國消費者的抵制對泰國養蝦業的衝擊似乎有限，美國政府的行動纔會對其產生重大影響。Thai officialdom is complicit in labour abuses. At the top, Thai ministers pay too little attention to the problem. Further down, policemen, immigration officials and others collude with brokers and factory owners. It creates what the State Department calls an “enabling environment” for human trafficking.
泰國的官僚體系是虐工共犯。在上層，泰國的部長們對此關注極少，下面的警察、移民局官員等人與蛇頭和工廠老闆沆瀣一氣。美國國務院稱這些現象爲人口販運創造了“有利環境”。A Thai law against human trafficking, passed in 2008, is clear enough. But it is too often ignored by those who are meant to enforce it. The discrepancy between the volume of trafficking that is believed to be going on and the rates of arrest by the Thai police is startling. In 2011, for instance, the marine police did not report a single case of forced labour in all its inspections of fishing vessels heading out to sea. Neither did they find any cases to report during more than 1,000 inspections of fishing boats beyond coastal waters. The vessel owners, like some factory owners, are presumably being tipped off.
2008年泰國通過的一項打擊販運人口的法律極爲詳盡，但執法者卻經常對它置若罔聞。實際販賣情況和警方逮捕人數之間的差距令人吃驚。例如，2011年海警在對出港漁船的檢查中沒有報告一例強迫勞動的情況，對沿海水域作業的漁船的1000餘次檢查中也沒有發現並報告任何情況。據推測，船主和那些工廠老闆一樣事先便已得到消息。At the end of last year the government introduced a new attempt to crack down on trafficking. It insisted that every illegal immigrant should now get temporary papers and be properly registered, or face deportation. In theory, giving workers more legal protection from dodgy employers is a good idea. In practice, it has merely created new opportunities for graft. A passport and its attendant visa, work permit and other papers is expensive enough, costing the equivalent of over $100. But Maung Toe of the Migrant Justice Programme, which helps Burmese seafood workers in Mahachai, the town with the largest Burmese population in Thailand, reports that some are being hoodwinked into parting with five times that amount.
去年年底政府採取了新的措施打擊人口販賣。政府要求每一個非法移民必須獲得臨時證件並按規定進行註冊，否則將被驅逐出境。從理論上講，在黑心的僱主手下做工的工人得到更多的法律保護是個不錯的主意，可事實上這僅僅是爲貪污腐敗製造了新的機會。辦理護照和隨後的簽證、工作許可證等其他證件非常昂貴，花費超過100美元。但“移民公正項目處”的貌都說，一些人被騙支付了5倍的價錢。“移民公正項目處”旨在爲泰國境內最大的緬甸社區瑪哈猜的緬甸工人提供幫助。At that price, some workers will choose to remain in the shadows. Nonetheless, so bad is the exploitation of illegal workers that most of them now seem to be registering for the new papers. One incentive for them to do so is that they are more likely to get paid a new national minimum wage, of $10 a day. The government says 1.2m people have registered, and it has extended the deadline to March 16th. Maung Toe reckons that conditions will improve for the newly legal migrants, “but not by much”. Maybe, though, just enough to save the government’s blushes?
這樣的價格使一些工人選擇繼續保持沉默。不過目前看來對非法工人的嚴酷剝削還是使大多數人開始註冊新的證件，原因之一是這樣他們會更容易獲得每天10美元的新的全國最低工資標準。政府稱已有120萬人註冊，並將截止日期延後至3月16日。貌都估計新的合法移民的狀況將會有所改善，“但畢竟有限”。不過，如果說目的僅僅是爲政府遮羞，是不是已經足夠了呢？
