Aliens to get visas faster under MOUs

The Labour Ministry is set to rely more on information technology to speed up paperwork processing foreign migrant workers under memorandums of understanding between Thailand and neighbouring countries.

Anurak Tossarat, director-general of the Department of Employment, said it currently takes 45-60 days to process employers’ requests to bring in migrant labour under MoUs on labour cooperation signed with Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos.

Online document processing will save a significant amount of time and the online paperwork service will be in place shortly to expedite the whole process, he said.

The existing process is lengthy and tiresome as it involves a lot of paperwork between Thailand and those countries.

Mr Anurak said employers who want to import foreign migrant labour under such MoUs must submit requests and the necessary documentation to local or provincial employment offices.

After they have been verified they will be sent to the department which will pass them on to foreign embassies. From there, the documents will be forwarded to the country from where the worker or workers are to be recruited.

Lists of recruited workers will then be sent back by those countries to the department, which will then pass them on to the employers who have submitted the requests so they can proceed with their recruitment plans.

At the same time, the department will ask Thai embassies based in the workers’ countries of origin to grant them a visa.

When the workers enter Thailand legally they will attend orientation sessions at postarrival and reintegration centres in various border provinces, where they will be issued with work permits, Mr Anurak said.

He said that efforts are being made to help employers and entrepreneurs who have been crippled by labour shortages recently.

They have been encouraged to bring in migrant workers who are legally authorised to work rather than relying on illegal labour.

Thailand has begun cracking down on undocumented migrant labourers after a grace period during which they could apply for legal working status ended.