Few migrant workers register

[webfact]

Few migrant workers register

By PRATCH RUJIVANAROM 
THE NATION

 

 

illegal workforce will face harsh penalties, say authorities

BANGKOK: -- FEWER MIGRANT workers signed up at government registration centres than expected, with an estimated 40 to 50 per cent of illegal migrant workers participating. 

 

As a result, authorities have cautioned that employers and unregistered illegal workers could face harsh punishments.

 

Yesterday was the last day of the 15-day period for registering illegal migrant workers. 

 

 

However, Labour Ministry spokesperson Ananchai Uthaipattanachep said only 674,336 migrant workers had registered, adding that the remaining unregistered migrant workers would have to go back to their countries of origin and come back via the MOU [memorandum of understanding] system if both employers and workers want to avoid being charged.

 

Ananchai said business-sector estimates put the number of illegal workers in Thailand at around 2 million. The government had expected around 800,000 migrant workers would show up for registration, but less than 700,000 had.

 

“This 15-day migrant worker registration aims for the employers, who already hired illegal migrant workers, to register their employees and legalise their status,” Ananchai said. “But if they failed to grab this chance, they will have to let their employees return home and import them back in again via the more costly MOU system.

 

“Or else they may face charges per the new Migrant Worker Emergency Decree.”

 

The MOU system, based on an agreement between regional governments, is time-consuming and requires employers to work with costly consultants.

 

Director Sompong Srakaew of the Labour Rights Promotion Network Foundation said he was not surprised by the low turnout for registration, adding that the outcome was predictable because many business operators were sceptical of the procedure.

 

“We found that not many employers were registering their workers during the first days of the registration, as many were unsure about the overall procedures and the possible tax problems for their businesses. But we can see that many eventually turned up during the last days of registration,” Sompong said.

 

‘MOU system too costly’

 

He also complimented the policy, saying the government had done good work trying to relieve the impact of enforcement of the new migrant worker law. 

 

The registration was also well organised, he said, but cautioned that it could not solve the country’s worker shortage problem.

“In my opinion, the government should open similar registration sessions in the future as an alternative way to bring in legal migrant workers to drive our economy, because bringing in migrant workers via the MOU system is too costly for both workers and small employers,” he said.

 

Sompong added that severe punishments and the high cost of importing migrant workers would only encourage corruption among officers and benefit intermediaries who charge fees to bring in workers.

 

Ananchai also said registered workers would now have to pass an interview session with the Labour Ministry to guarantee their employment status with a current employer, after which they would have to pass the Certification of Identity (CI) via the CI one-stop service for workers of their nationalities.

 

Myanmar migrant workers will be able to go to one of nine CI centres across the country starting on August 24. Cambodian workers will have to go the CI centres in Bangkok, Rayong and Songkhla starting from late August. 

 

However, Lao workers will have to return to their country to certify their identities before coming back to Thailand to finish the procedure.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30323118

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-08-08

[ukrules]

Unless they sort this mess out there's going to be a mass exodus on the scale of nothing we've seen before.

 

Large scale infrastructure projects will grind to a halt as over a million people leave the country after the first few arrests or if they're really unlucky they will go to their home countries for their extended new years holiday and never return.

 

This has the potential to destroy the economy and I suspect nobody will do a single thing to prevent it because they can't.

 

I doubt anyone is even allowed to disagree with what's happening.

[yellowboat]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

Ananchai also said registered workers would now have to pass an interview session with the Labour Ministry to guarantee their employment status with a current employer, after which they would have to pass the Certification of Identity (CI) via the CI one-stop service for workers of their nationalities.

All this for guys who wash dishes, processes fish or lifts sacks of rice on to a boat ?  Sounds completely ridiculous .   And they wonder why compliance is so low. 

[BasalBanality]

More abandoned construction projects to add to the existing collection with this potential mass exodus is great for urban explorers in the near future.

[DavisH]

"possible tax problems" = having to pay tax !!! We can't have businesses starting to pay tax, can we?

[YetAnother]

1 hour ago, ukrules said:

Unless they sort this mess out there's going to be a mass exodus on the scale of nothing we've seen before.

 

Large scale infrastructure projects will grind to a halt as over a million people leave the country after the first few arrests or if they're really unlucky they will go to their home countries for their extended new years holiday and never return.

 

This has the potential to destroy the economy and I suspect nobody will do a single thing to prevent it because they can't.

 

I doubt anyone is even allowed to disagree with what's happening.

yes they are clueless

[YetAnother]

the tenor of this idiotic law reflects the general ultra conservative ideology of this govt, forget not it is a military dictatorship with no real end in sight;  it would take very little for such an ideology to spill over into all our extensions; cambodia looks better all the time; dual abodes, coming back here on long term tourist visas

[gandalf12]

I thought ASEAN was meant to open borders to member of the community. Obviously I was wrong. I understood the idea to be a form of free movement across the ASEAN borders. Looks like Thailand wants open borders for Thailand and lock everyone else out.

Should get on well with Trump

[mike324]

I would say if 50% of the illegal went to register, it is consider as a lot. Many of the illegal can't read, won't know where to register, or fear of being arrested on the road.  Many of the ones registering have help from their companies, I know this because we use a labor agency to find workers, and they bring in new workers there to register to make them legal before directing them to companies.

 

The labor agency I use is taking advantage of the registration, as its easier than bringing in new workers from abroad.

[ukrules]

6 hours ago, mike324 said:

I would say if 50% of the illegal went to register, it is consider as a lot. Many of the illegal can't read, won't know where to register, or fear of being arrested on the road.  Many of the ones registering have help from their companies, I know this because we use a labor agency to find workers, and they bring in new workers there to register to make them legal before directing them to companies.

 

The labor agency I use is taking advantage of the registration, as its easier than bringing in new workers from abroad.

 

The 50% figure is a lie though. They say there are 2 million illegal workers and 674,336 of those registered.

 

Now, this brings me to the second point - where do they get the 2 million number from ? I suspect someone pulled it out of their ass, there will in reality be way more than 2 million.

 

When talking about figures and stats governments pretty much always choose numbers that make them look less ineffective so we can probably double that number to 4 million which is a number I just pulled out of my ass but it's just as valid as the 2 million number.