One-stop centres ordered to speed up

UDON THANI: The Labour Ministry has ordered one-stop service (OSS) centres to speed up filing the registration of migrant workers so they can proceed to have their nationalities verified.

Once workers submit completed labour documentation to a service centre, it must file their registration documents within an hour, Labour Minister Pol Gen Adul Sangsingkeo said yesterday.

There are many such centres in provinces where migrant workers are employed. They integrate the work of state agencies involved in migrant labour registration filing.

After filing, related to documents on health checks and employer identification, is done, workers must have their nationalities verified by June 30, which marks the final step before being granted work permits.

According to Pol Gen Adul, registration filing failed to meet the March 31 deadline because of the sheer number of applicants.

Pol Gen Adul was visiting an OSS centre in Udon Thani yesterday, which was filing necessary documents for workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.

Apichart Wongkalasin, a labour specialist in Udon Thani, said the labour office has notified employers to take their workers for nationality verification promptly because the process is time-consuming.

He noted that most Lao workers based in Udon Thani prefer to go back to their home country for the verification.

For Myanmar and Cambodian workers, nationality verification is performed at centres in Samut Prakan and in Lat Phrao district in Bangkok.

Pol Gen Adul said the OSS centre in Udon Thani was working to file documents for 300 migrant workers.

“We are doing this as fast as we can,” he said.

The only hurdle left now was to perform nationality verification and migrant workers have been asked to complete the step quickly. For Lao workers, it is easier and faster to cross the border to get verification there.

For most Cambodians in Udon Thani, however, it may be too far to travel home. They are advised instead to make the trip to Bangkok to undergo verification there.

Yi or Kaew Yam, from Battambang in Cambodia, said she has been to the Udon Thani centre several times to file labour documents. Her application had been rejected previously because she did not have all the necessary documents with her.

She went to the centre again yesterday, hoping the filing could go ahead.

Ms Yi, who is married to a Thai, said she has been working at a construction site in Udon Thani for eight years.

TAWATCHAI KEMGUMNERD Migrant workers wait to submit their labour documentation at the one-stop service centre at the Labour Ministry yesterday. The centre will file their documents so they can be registered as workers, thus integrating the work of several agencies.