Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers in Thailand shun migrant registration as deadline passes

[Jonathan Fairfield]

Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers in Thailand shun migrant registration as deadline passes

The Myanmar Migrant Network Thailand yesterday called on the Myanmar government to speed up the process of issuing temporary passports to migrant workers, who have reported difficulties under the Thai government’s current “pink card” program.

The Thai government set yesterday as a deadline for pink-card holders to renew their temporary documents for another year. It has threatened to arrest and deport those who fail to register.

But as of June 29, only 411,908, or 62 percent, of the 664,439 Myanmar workers and their dependants who hold the pink cards had applied to extend them, according to official figures provided to The Myanmar Times yesterday.

Launched by the Thai military junta following the May 2014 coup, the scheme was designed as an interim measure to give workers time to apply for temporary passports under the nationality verification program. Workers were given until October 2014 to register, after which they were supposed to complete the NV process by March 2015.

However, because of a lack of cooperation from Myanmar, only a handful of passports were issued and the Thai government extended the validity of the pink cards to June 30.

Read more: http://www.mmtimes.com/index.php/national-news/15286-hundreds-of-thousands-shun-registration-as-deadline-passes.html