Turning a blind eye?

Mae Sot, a province in Thailand that borders Burma, is know by most as a factory district. It is home to some 200 clothing factories, and populated by refugees from Burma's instable government (since a harsh military coup in the 1960's). These migrant workers are fleeing from instability and enormous poverty...and are arriving in a place of exploitation.

Children labor laws have been repeatedly violated in the Mae Sot province of Thailand. Factories are hiring children of all ages, and imposing cruel work standards. Some of these include 12 hour work shifts, low pay, or that the workers must live in the factory in order to work there. This is the kind of stuff that should have stopped the day before yesterday, correct? So why hasn't the Thai government stepped in and cleaned up its Mae Sot district?

Denial is a large part of the problem. After a radification to the Child Protection Act in 2003, Thailand is insisting that there is little violation still occuring. Most recently, to combat what claims have been made, Thailand has developed a "social awareness" program. The program should educate the populace about Child Labor laws through family, academic, religious, or community institutions. Difficult to do when the childrens families are illegal refugee's, and the children themselves work 12 hour shifts and live in the factories where they're working, wouldn't you say?

"The labor inspection services in Thailand are under-staffed and under-resourced." Tim De Meyer, a specialist on international labor standards asserts. "Regular labour inspection is exactly the sort of thing you need here for things to work. Having a political commitment is not enough."

This author wonders if Thailand might be considering its opportunity costs; how expensive would it be to provide higher funding for the LIS (Labor Inspection Service) and actively combat child labor, imprisoning some people, and assuming care over those children liberated, not to mention the production loss generated through disruption of the factories low wage and awesome production rates? And how expensive would it be to increase domestic awareness of child labor laws through family, religious, academic and community institutions? I'm thinking much less costly...

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=7228496703141b30c5a499201da8d3e8&_docnum=13&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkVb&_md5=7d63b17ed1eadb6488700505c101caab

http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe/document?_m=7228496703141b30c5a499201da8d3e8&_docnum=2&wchp=dGLbVtb-zSkVb&_md5=efafa554271d4287777935cda71d2617