A major oil company that built a pipeline from the Arabian Sea to Thailand has been accused by a human rights organisation of forced labour and, under French law, of unlawful detention, which led to a complaint being lodged and the director of the local facilities being placed under investigation.
Under the terms of the contract, Burma (Myanmar) was responsible for carrying out a number of tasks to enable the installation and operation of the pipeline. As the army essentially administered the country, it conscripted peasants to carry out the work for which it was responsible, but without paying them, under a system of forced labour reminiscent of the Ancien Régime.
The discovery of this situation led to the company offering compensation of its own accord, with a claims office set up for all local workers who had not been paid. Other workers subsequently came forward through legal action in France, initiated by the SHERPA association. An agreement was reached between SHERPA and the oil company, with the approval of the investigating judge. A solidarity fund of 5.5 million euros was set up to trace all those who may have been employed on the site without being paid, to support the UNHCR, which was short of resources for its local programmes, and to promote initiatives in support of refugees. A programme was implemented with the help of local organisations, notably the Thai episcopate. The investigating judge dismissed the case.
This fund was fully utilised by the end of 2018, to everyone’s satisfaction. 480 people had been located and compensated, and programmes had been launched, most of which yielded positive results for refugee communities along the Myanmar-Thailand border. This was yet another positive outcome of a legal case resolved through negotiation.