Government changes plan on IDs for migrant workers in Thailand

By Kyaw Phone Kyaw   |   Tuesday, 24 March 2015 

Migrant workers in Thailand have been given an unexpected grace period, the deputy labour minister announced yesterday. Speaking at a press conference, U Htin Aung said the estimated 645,000 Myanmar workers in Thailand would be able to retain the so-called pink card that entitles them to work for an extra year.

A Myanmar migrant worker in Chiang Mai holds her young child. (Kaung Htet/The Myanmar Times)

 

The pink cards issued by the Thai government to Myanmar migrant workers were due to expire next week under an agreement by which the Myanmar government would issue its nationals in the kingdom certificates of identity.

But following a ministerial-level meeting earlier this month, the Thai government agreed to honour the pink cards until April 2016. During the extra year of grace, the workers can register for a work permit and visa. They also have until 2017 to produce their national registration card (NRC) and official household document in order to acquire a passport.

“Migrant workers now have much longer to get a passport,” U Myo Aung, director general of the Department of Labour, told reporters. However, undocumented Myanmar workers in Thailand, whose numbers are unknown but are thought to be large, do not appear to benefit from this agreement.

The Myanmar government is also urging Thai employers to allow their Myanmar workers time to go home to make the necessary arrangements.

Deputy minister U Htin Aung said officials were under instructions to issue passports as quickly as possible, perhaps even within one day, to applicants with the necessary documentation.

The government has also succeeded in persuading the Thai authorities to extend the grace period for Myanmar migrants working in the fishing industry, where they spend a great deal of time at sea or out of reach of information, said Myo Aung. However, rural workers were not granted any extra time.

“The Thai government agreed to our request only for the fishing-boat workers,” said the deputy minister, adding that the Thais would open offices in 22 districts for that purpose.

Though exact figures are unavailable, some observers estimate there may be as many as 3 million Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand, many of them undocumented.

U Ko Tun, a coordinator with the Migrant Workers’ Rights Network, accused the Myanmar government of playing into the Thais’ hands out of weakness. He said the pink card extension plan would benefit the Thai government, since the migrants would have to pay about 2500 baht (about K80,000), plus as much as 10,000 baht (K320,000) to brokers.

He said the Myanmar government should resurrect a 2009 plan for extending the documents of 1.68 million temporary passport holders who, under current rules, have to return home when the passport expires. A similar system led last year to the mass exodus of Cambodian workers, causing a temporary labour shortage in Thailand.

“It would be better for undocumented workers if the Myanmar government could issue them with NRC and household lists so they could get passports and work permits,” U Ko Tun told The Myanmar Times.
The Thai government has said it will arrest and repatriate undocumented Myanmar migrant workers after 2016.http://kyawphonekyaw