Govt urged to ensure migrant workers are treated fairly

"There are enough or perhaps too many alien workers already," Dr Yongyut Chalaemwong said recently in his capacity as the TDRI director for labourdevelopment research.

According to TDRI, there are about 2 million alien workers in Thailand.

Yongyut said the government should not register more alien workers because the registration would just attract new migrants while the ones already in the country would go underground.

He believes that about half of the alien workers in Thailand lived and worked here illegally. Many had changed employers without seeking new work permits, while others simply failed to renew their permits.

"Both the workers and the employers have violated the law in such cases," he said.

His statements are based on a survey of more than 600 alien workers in Thailand.

Yongyut said this practice was detrimental to the country, left lawabiding employers at a disadvantage and made many Thai workers lose opportunities to illegal migrant workers who are willing to work for lower wages.

"This has also allowed some people to take advantage of illegal workers," he pointed out.

According to the survey, up to 17 per cent of the employers have not paid their workers at all while more than 20 per cent paid less than what they had initially promised. Some 20 per cent of the employers told workers their wages were being lowered without providing any reasons.

"In some cases, employers colluded with agents in extracting exorbitant fees from the alien workers too. Therefore, filling a document can cost these workers hundreds instead of just a couple of dozen baht," Yongyut said.

He said the authorities should not allow such unfair treatment and illegal activities to continue.

"The government should efficiently use available legal mechanisms to manage migrant workers in the country," Yongyuth concluded.