Roundup: Myanmar migrant workers leave Thailand for general election back home

Thousands of Myanmar migrant workers have departed Thailand for their homeland with intent to go to the polls on the upcoming Sunday elections, police said on Friday.

The Myanmar migrants, currently hired as workers in Thai territory, have left for home from across Thai border areas such as those in Ranong province in southern Thailand, Prachuab Kirikan province in the western region of the country and Chiang Rai province in the northern part of the country.

Boats shuttled the Myanmar migrants from Ranong to Victory Point township in a southern coastal strip of Myanmar and those in Prachuab Kirikan traveled via Singkorn border checkpoint to Mergui township and Tanintharyi region while those in Chiang Rai crossed Maesai checkpoint into Tachilek township in Shan state. The Myanmar nationals have left for their homeland since the last few days and are expected to return to Thailand where they are employed as working migrants.

Most were said to have intended to cast their votes in Myanmar's election and have taken varied goods such as food, toys and electric appliances to give to their relatives in the neighboring country.

Nevertheless, only few Myanmar migrants in Samut Sakorn province, on the southwestern outskirts of the Thai capital, were reported to have departed for Myanmar only to go to the polls, the police said.

Travels on a 300-plus-kilometers route between Samut Sakorn and the nearest Thai-Myanmar border in Kanchanaburi province might be quite costly and take several days off from work.

Zaw Myint, a 34-year-old Myanmar migrant employed at a seafood processing factory in Samut Sakorn, said he had earlier planned to go to the polls and visit his family in Tanintharyi but could not make it without a few days off besides Sunday.

"The factory manager did not allow me to take a few days off after Sunday. Not only I but many of my colleagues wanted to leave if they could," he said.

He believed candidates running under the tickets of the opposition National League for Democracy party led by Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi would win seats in his native Mandalay region.

"I'd certainly vote for Aung San's party only if I went to the polls," the migrant worker said.

An estimated two million Myanmar migrants are currently employed, either in legal or illegal fashion, in Samut Sakorn and nearby areas. Most are hired in Thai fishing industry such as crewmembers for fishing trawlers and workers in seafood storage houses and seafood processing factories.

In 2012, Suu Kyi visited Samut Sakorn, which locates Thailand's largest fishing industry, where she was warmly received by tens of thousands of Myanmar migrants, most of whom including Zaw Myint appeared loyal to her.

In Sunday's election, the NLD is contesting against the ruling Union Solidarity and Development Party headed by Myanmar president Thein Sein.

Though Suu Kyi is barred by the Myanmar constitution from running for president, she has mustered solid support from among constituents in Naypyidaw, Yangon and Mandalay for NLD candidates. Endit