-65-  LABOR M IGRATION IN THE GREA TER M EKONG SUB-REGION: THE CASE OF CAMBODIAN M IGRANT W ORKERS IN THAILAND Deth Sok Udom Rector, Paragon International University Senior Fellow, CICP ********* Introduction In 2017, ten years after the Declaration on Promotion and Protection of Rights of Migrant Workers in ASEAN in Cebu, the Philippines, the ASEAN Consensus on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Migrant Workers was finally signed during the 31st ASEAN Summit in Manila, in which the governments of ASEAN pledged to enforce laws that protect the rights of migrant workers. However, this consensus “ only covers migrant workers who are documented and those who become undocumented through no fault of their own” (ASEAN, 2017). In that same year, the announcement by the Thai government of the Royal Ordinance on Management of Foreign Workers “ has led to an intensified campaign to criminalize [undocumented] migrants and the subsequent mass exodus of migrants– mostly Cambodian migrants–owing to their fear of arrest and the extremely severe punishments that may follow” (Mekong Migration Network, 2017a, p. 10). The 2017 crackdown mirrored that undertaken by the Thai junta government in June 2014, following the coup a month earlier, which prompted more than 200,000 Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand to flock to the border en masse. As the Mekong Migration Network observed, “Migrant workers have long been a fundamental part of the economy of the Greater Mekong Sub- region (GMS), filling labor shortages in destination countries while sending remittances home. Despite their importance, migrants in the GMS often work and in live in precarious situations” (Mekong Migration Network, 2017b, p. 8). The case of Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand is no different.