<span id="midArticle_start"/><span id="midArticle_0"/>BANGKOK, May 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - A Burmesewoman working in Thailand hired a man to sedate and smuggle her3-month-old baby across the border to relatives in Myanmar,researchers said, describing a common "service" for desperatemigrant mothers fearful of losing their jobs.
<span id="midArticle_1"/>Researchers whose study was published on Wednesday surveyed114 women migrants in the six countries along the Mekong Riverabout their health, and found that many went to extremes to endpregnancies or send babies home because of problems at work.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>"A lot of people noted they will get fired when they getpregnant when they are abroad... they will get fired and gohome," said Rebecca Napier-Moore, who wrote the report for theMekong Migration Network, an advocacy umbrella group oforganisations.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>The woman who hired the smuggler - a migrant in her 20s whoused to work at a fish canning factory near theThailand-Malaysia border - told researchers her employer did notallow babies in the workplace and she could not afford ababysitter.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>"So I sent my baby with a broker to my parents in Mon state,Myanmar," the woman was quoted as saying in the report. "Youneed to pay a broker 5,000 baht ($150) for one baby" who theysedate with drugs for the duration of the journey.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>Brahm Press, director of the MAP Foundation rights groupbased in the northern Thai city Chiang Mai, who led the researchin Thailand, said her account indicated the service was a knownway for Burmese women in Thailand to send their babies home.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>"It's not uncommon. This is a service they (smugglers)provide," Press told the Thomson Reuters Foundation bytelephone.
<span id="midArticle_7"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Millions of migrants cross borders to find work in theGreater Mekong subregion, made up of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos,Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>Thailand, the main destination country, hosts an estimated 3million documented and undocumented migrant workers, 80 percentof whom are from Myanmar.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Migrants are often unable or unwilling to access health carein host countries because of discrimination, high costs,language barriers, or fear of arrest and deportation.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>The study said that of the women interviewed - who worked insectors including construction, agriculture, domestic work, sexwork, retail and manufacturing - 41 percent lacked migrationdocuments.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>
<span id="midArticle_12"/>DANGEROUS ABORTIONS
<span id="midArticle_13"/>The most shocking accounts in the report involved pregnantwomen, very few of whom receive antenatal care. The study foundthat 57 percent of women worked at places with no maternityleave.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>A former sex worker from Myanmar told researchers that aThai employer sent her friend to Myanmar for an unsafe abortionwith an untrained midwife.
<span id="midArticle_15"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>"She put red medicine into my friend's vagina, and massagedher pregnant belly hard. Blood came out after half an hour andthen the foetus," the unnamed woman was quoted as saying.
<span id="midArticle_0"/>The cost of the abortion depends how far along the pregnancyis, the woman said. "For aborting after one month of pregnancy,we need to pay 10,000 kyat ($10). Some women die during theseabortions."
<span id="midArticle_1"/>The report said that the women surveyed - 62 percent of whomhad no health insurance - usually treat themselves and continueto work while ill.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>Many use home remedies and seek care from traditionalhealers or pharmacies, where they can get drugs "faster, cheaperand without the discrimination they might find in hospitals".
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Because of language barriers or miscommunication, migrantsmay get the wrong medication, or they may receive no adviceabout how to take the medication, the report said.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>"Counterfeit or poor quality drugs, overuse of antibioticsand poisoning are risks of self-treatment in a region that doesnot strictly regulate pharmacies or require prescriptions formost drugs", the report said.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>(Reporting by Alisa Tang, Editing by Tim Pearce)
<span id="midArticle_6"/>
<span id="midArticle_1"/>Researchers whose study was published on Wednesday surveyed114 women migrants in the six countries along the Mekong Riverabout their health, and found that many went to extremes to endpregnancies or send babies home because of problems at work.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>"A lot of people noted they will get fired when they getpregnant when they are abroad... they will get fired and gohome," said Rebecca Napier-Moore, who wrote the report for theMekong Migration Network, an advocacy umbrella group oforganisations.
<span id="midArticle_3"/>The woman who hired the smuggler - a migrant in her 20s whoused to work at a fish canning factory near theThailand-Malaysia border - told researchers her employer did notallow babies in the workplace and she could not afford ababysitter.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>"So I sent my baby with a broker to my parents in Mon state,Myanmar," the woman was quoted as saying in the report. "Youneed to pay a broker 5,000 baht ($150) for one baby" who theysedate with drugs for the duration of the journey.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>Brahm Press, director of the MAP Foundation rights groupbased in the northern Thai city Chiang Mai, who led the researchin Thailand, said her account indicated the service was a knownway for Burmese women in Thailand to send their babies home.
<span id="midArticle_6"/>"It's not uncommon. This is a service they (smugglers)provide," Press told the Thomson Reuters Foundation bytelephone.
<span id="midArticle_7"/> <span class="first-article-divide"/>Millions of migrants cross borders to find work in theGreater Mekong subregion, made up of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos,Thailand, Vietnam and Yunnan and Guangxi provinces in China.
<span id="midArticle_8"/>Thailand, the main destination country, hosts an estimated 3million documented and undocumented migrant workers, 80 percentof whom are from Myanmar.
<span id="midArticle_9"/>Migrants are often unable or unwilling to access health carein host countries because of discrimination, high costs,language barriers, or fear of arrest and deportation.
<span id="midArticle_10"/>The study said that of the women interviewed - who worked insectors including construction, agriculture, domestic work, sexwork, retail and manufacturing - 41 percent lacked migrationdocuments.
<span id="midArticle_11"/> <span class="second-article-divide"/>
<span id="midArticle_12"/>DANGEROUS ABORTIONS
<span id="midArticle_13"/>The most shocking accounts in the report involved pregnantwomen, very few of whom receive antenatal care. The study foundthat 57 percent of women worked at places with no maternityleave.
<span id="midArticle_14"/>A former sex worker from Myanmar told researchers that aThai employer sent her friend to Myanmar for an unsafe abortionwith an untrained midwife.
<span id="midArticle_15"/> <span class="third-article-divide"/>"She put red medicine into my friend's vagina, and massagedher pregnant belly hard. Blood came out after half an hour andthen the foetus," the unnamed woman was quoted as saying.
<span id="midArticle_0"/>The cost of the abortion depends how far along the pregnancyis, the woman said. "For aborting after one month of pregnancy,we need to pay 10,000 kyat ($10). Some women die during theseabortions."
<span id="midArticle_1"/>The report said that the women surveyed - 62 percent of whomhad no health insurance - usually treat themselves and continueto work while ill.
<span id="midArticle_2"/>Many use home remedies and seek care from traditionalhealers or pharmacies, where they can get drugs "faster, cheaperand without the discrimination they might find in hospitals".
<span id="midArticle_3"/>Because of language barriers or miscommunication, migrantsmay get the wrong medication, or they may receive no adviceabout how to take the medication, the report said.
<span id="midArticle_4"/>"Counterfeit or poor quality drugs, overuse of antibioticsand poisoning are risks of self-treatment in a region that doesnot strictly regulate pharmacies or require prescriptions formost drugs", the report said.
<span id="midArticle_5"/>(Reporting by Alisa Tang, Editing by Tim Pearce)
<span id="midArticle_6"/>
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