A migrant worker couple has complained to a non-governmental organisation against a state-run hospital in Samut Songkhram for taking away their passports after they were unable to pay their medical bill in full.
Pakphum Sawaengkam, of the Samut Songkhram-based Rak Thai Foundation, said the foundation received a complaint from a Myanmar couple after the wife had given birth at a local state-run hospital in the province recently.
The hospital charged the couple 20,000 baht for the procedure, but they did not have enough money to pay in full. Instead, the husband paid 3,000 baht and promised to pay the rest in installments. However, hospital staff seized the couple's passports and told them the documents would only be returned when the outstanding payments were made. Mr Pakphum said the seizing the workers' passports violated the foreign labour management law.
Mr Pakphum added the hospital management might not have any knowledge of the passports being taken away. It could have been case of junior staff demanding essential personal documents from the couple to guarantee they return to settle the payments. Nevertheless, the action is a violation of the law and basic human rights.
Currently, the law requires newborns to be registered with authorities within 15 days of their birth.
Mr Pakphum said the latest amendment to the migrant labour management law, which went into effect this year, stipulates that the registration of babies born to migrant worker parents requires the household registration document of the workers' employers.
However, many employers have refused to provide their household documents out of fear that it would be tantamount to agreeing to the children legally becoming part of their households.
Mr Pakphum said the babies' names will be placed in a central domicile database, not with the employers' households. However, authorities need the employers' household details before they can issue the babies' birth certificates.
The certificates are essential documents that migrant worker parents need to collect maternity aid from the Social Security Fund, to which they make a monthly contribution. The parents also must produce passports to pick up the money.
The seizing of passports and the employers' refusal to submit their household documents have prevented migrant workers' from obtaining the financial help they are entitled to under the law, Mr Pakphum said.