S2E3 - Thehoya Dy, Center for Alliance of Labor and Human Rights
“Our dream. We would like to see …very independent, community-based
organizations run by migrant worker themselves. So they understand their
rights. They protect their rights. And they stand up together for their
rights… And another thing that we would like to see… is all the children of
Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand having access to school.… They
have a right to education.”
During this episode we speak with Dy TheHoya, or Hoya, the Head of the
Anti-Human Trafficking and Migration Unit for CENTRAL – the Center for
the Alliance of Labor and Human Rights in Cambodia. Hoya is a former
Buddhist monk who studied in Thailand. He now taps many of the networks
from his time there to build CENTRAL’s outreach and support to
Cambodian migrants inside Thailand.
Hoya describes the complex challenges migrant fishers face, many of them
not getting paid for a year or more, some not at all. He explains the debt
burdens that force many Cambodians to migrate, noting that money paid to
recruiters is just one more loan on top of an already unmanageable debt
burden with high, accumulating interest rates.
CENTRAL’s approach to working with migrant fishers connects direct
services and training on safe migration with organizing and community-
based network building. They are working inside Cambodia to prepare
migrants before they leave the country, and to build support networks
among migrants inside Thailand. CENTRAL receives support from the
International Labour Organization’s Ship to Shore Program to provide safe
migration training to fishers and other migrants. They are building on that to
strengthen organizer networks on both sides of the Thai-Cambodian
border.
This is challenging work in a context where refugees who are outspoken
critics of the Cambodian government have faced deportation from Thailand
and arrest upon being returned to Cambodia. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has condemned these deportations. Yet the risk remains,
making migrant workers hesitant to speak out about employer abuse for
fear of deportation. And the organizers who help workers secure remedy
face even greater risk; some have received multiple threats.
CENTRAL’s vision – to build migrant worker networks so they can demand
their rights and support each other – is ambitious and multi-pronged. They
provide safe migration training before migrants leave, support the families
left behind in Cambodia, and provide legal aid to migrants seeking remedy
inside Thailand. Their goal is worker organizing, but they are starting with
the most basic community organizing, encouraging migrants to support
each other in seeking basic services – to collect back wages, access
medical care, or enroll their children in school.
To cite this podcast:
TheHoya, Dy and Judy Gearhart. 2024. “Organizing Migrant Fishers:
from Cambodia to Thailand.” Labor Link Podcast, Series 2, Episode 3.
Accountability Research Center, Washington, DC.
* Transcript available on request.
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