Leniency urged in registering migrants

Don’t scare workers away, advocates say

Labour rights advocates want the government to adopt a lenient approach when it starts registering about 1.5 million illegal migrant workers this Monday, warning strict registration conditions will only scare off them.

The call, made yesterday by the Labour Rights Promotion Network, aims to ensure the government does not waste a reprieve period that suspends the enforcement of parts of its stiffer executive decree against unlicenced foreign labour employment, which was granted following fears that it would force labourers out of an ageing Thai society that has had become increasingly dependent on them.

“The government must make it easy in order to bring them into the system,” LPN manager Sompong Srakaew said as he called for little or no conditions to be set for the registration and for it to proceed in a friendly atmosphere.

Employers and their undocumented foreign workers have been urged to report to authorities on July 24 and Aug 7 in a process to bring the status of illegal labourers under the law. The workers will have their statuses checked and nationalities verified to obtain a certificate of identity, known as CI, which is required for issuing work permits.

The 15-day window is part of the 180day grace period to last until Jan 1 that the government has allowed employers and the workers to get their paperwork in order after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha exercised the powerful Section 44 on parts of decree with harsh penalties, designed to curb wrongdoings, including transnational human trafficking.

Mr Sompong said the government should take his call seriously as there was talk in some provinces that workers must meet certain conditions to enter the legal employment process. Some were told they needed to prove they have worked for six months or show payment slips.

These are causing “confusion, hesitation and lack of confidence,” he said. He said he worried the feelings may discourage workers from meeting officials. The government should quickly come out to clarify all doubts, he said.

Mongkol sukcharoenthana, chairman of the National Fisheries Association of Thailand, also shares Mr Sompong’s stance, saying uncompromising conditions will only “further keep them [workers and employers] underground”.

Up to 1.5 million illegal migrant workers, mainly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, are estimated to be living in Thailand.

In an attempt to relieve worries of the workers, including those whose bosses are not the ones mentioned on their work permits, Labour Minister Sirichai Distakul said this violation will be reprieved, too.

“They can change employers,” Gen Sirichai said, referring to a group of licensed workers who work with different employers. “We just want them to process the change correctly [before the Jan 1 deadline],” he said.

The reprieve is needed as a transition period before the full enforcement of the new law which must co-exist with the country’s need for more migrant labourers to meet increasing labour demands as Thailand moves towards an aged society, said economist Nualnoi Treerat, also chief of the Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Asian Studies.