Thai labor ministry confirms ‘no new round of workers registration’
Thailand’s Ministry of Labor on 19th April confirmed that there would definitely be no new round of alien workers registration, according to a rights group Chiangmai-based Migrant Justice Program.
The announcement was made in reference to the demands from some private sector and rights groups calling for the government to open a new round of worker registration for people who were working without any documents and for them to be able to apply for the national verification process as agreed by Thai and Burmese authorities. If not they will not be able to comply with the existing national verification process, said Sai Noom from Migrant Justice Program.
Mr Jirisak Sukhonchaat, the Director General of the Employment Department said “Anyhow, there will be no opening of a new migrant registration. But the existing nationality verification process will go on as usual.”
At present, the process is underway for those workers who have already expressed their wish to go through the process. So far, the number of workers completing the process has now risen to 70, 000 persons. And contracts have already been made to bring 20, 000 alien workers who passed the process by the military authorities into Thailand from Burma, according to statistics of the Employment Department.
However, there were over 300,000 people who had missed to apply for the process by the deadline, 28 February. They will be investigated by the authorities and sent back to their home country, according to Mr Jirisak Sukhonchaat.
“If they still want to enter Thailand, they should ask for permission from their authorities to be allowed to work legally,” he said.In addition, if there are employers who want to continue employing their alien workers (who are among people that failed to meet the deadline for applying the NV process), the employers must send the names of the workers to the Employment Department. The department then will send the workers’ names to their home country Burma, to allow them to enter and work in Thailand legally.
Andy Hall, Director of Migrant Justice Programme said the plan for dealing with unregistered migrants in Thailand who missed the nationality verification deadline is a ridiculous waste of time and money for all involved.
“In addition, unregistered migrants will have to travel with a broker back to Burma or be arrested and deported back, and then they will have to liaise with Burmese agents to return back to Thailand legally. The process will no doubt be costly, lacking in transparency, corrupt and dangerous. It may benefit some individuals and groups, but not most migrant workers and their employers,” he said.
Meanwhile, the rate of completing the process at the 3 checkpoints: Kawsawng, Myawaddy and Tachilek have been raised from 600 to 1, 000 people per day, according to the labor ministry.
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