A 16-year-old girl and her friends, all of whom were forced into hard labour without pay in Thailand , were returned home this month.
Workers take a ferry to go to their jobs in Thailand . Ms Noy (not her real name) was born into a rice farming family in Lau-ngam district, Saravan province.
One day, while her family was working in the fields, she ran away from home and crossed the border into Thailand .
She found work in a food preparation factory with other young Lao workers who had also been lured there with the promise of good pay and working conditions.
“The work was hard, and I missed my parents so much,” she said.
Another young woman from a poor rice farming community in Saravan province, Ms Vanh, 29, lost one of her two children to an illness, as she could not afford medical treatment.
Grief-stricken, she decided to leave her family, and illegally crossed the border looking for a new life in Thailand .
Vanh was also cheated by a Lao broker, who promised to find her a job in Thailand where she could earn up to 3,000 baht (nearly 900,000 kip) a month.
After working for six months in the same factory, Vanh and Noy had still received no pay from their employer.
The head of the Labour Department in Saravan province, Ms Nou Ing Thengsombath, said that most people there are farmers and are completely reliant on natural resources.
“People only get one rice harvest a year because there is no irrigation in the dry season, and then they have to struggle,” she said.
In these difficult circumstances, some parents allow their children to find work in Thailand because they see their neighbours receiving money from family members there.
“Some people are able to send money back home even though they are working illegally,” she said.
“Sometimes, the children sent to work across the border are as young as 12 or 13.”
According to the Ministry of Labour, more and more young people are illegally seeking work in Thailand ; currently, there are more than 100 Lao nationals waiting to be deported from Thailand 's Ketakan Rehabilitation Centre.
The ministry claims that many families have too many children to feed, so parents encourage their children to quit school and find a job.
They have seen friends or relatives working in Thailand and sending money to their families in Laos , and many are convinced that this is the way to become rich.
Although some people do get paid well working there, many others are disappointed by what they find.
Many who enter illegally are forced into menial, low-paid labour or prostitution.
Noy and Vanh worked from 6am to 11pm every day, cleaning seafood.
“I had only one change of clothes, which I wore all the time since leaving Laos ,” said Vanh. “Sometimes our employers gave us drugs to enable us to work longer. We were so tired all the time.”
After six months without payment, Vanh and her friends finally escaped from the factory. “We had no money and we ran out of that house without even shoes on our feet,” she said
The Thai police helped them, and sent them to Ketakan Rehabilitation Centre before sending them back to Laos .
At the centre, sitting in the living room watching television, was a group of 11 young women who were on their way back to their hometowns. Eight of them were from Saravan, while the others were from Borikhamxay and Savannakhet provinces.
Vanh, Noy and their friends are happy to be returning to Laos and eager to meet their families again; both realise that leaving home was a bad idea, and now want to encourage others to be more careful.
These women, although young, want to have jobs so they can work their way out of poverty. But, in Thailand , it's difficult to imagine the risks they can face when living and working there illegally.
“I'm scared now, and I won't go back again,” said Ms Noy in her high-pitched voice, fidgeting as she spoke, and staring at the ground.
By Viengsavanh Phengphachan (Latest Update December 12, 2007
