Migrants fail to renew work permits

Of 39,272 workers from Cambodia, Burma and Laos whose work permits expired on January 20, only 11,879 renewed their work permits, he said.

Of 892,875 workers whose work permits will expire on February 28, only 37,347 got new permits in advance during the above-mentioned period.

Chalermchai said employers who failed to bring migrant workers to renew their permits could be charged with illegally employing alien workers, which was punishable by fines of Bt10,000 to Bt100,000 per worker. Workers themselves would be charged with working without permission, punishable by up to five years in jail and/or a fine of Bt2,000-Bt100,000.

Chalermchai said Burmese deputy foreign minister Maung Myint recently urged him to arrange another round of worker registration. Maung Myint told him Burmese officials would cooperate with a worker nationality identification process to be completed by February 28, 2012. They would also improve the IT system used to issue Burmese ID cards.

Chalermchai said Maung Myint told him if Burmese workers still sneaked into Thailand after the next round of registrations, Thai authorities could take legal action against them.

Maung Myint also urged the Thai Labour Ministry to survey the number of Burmese workers in Thailand and notify the Burmese Embassy so it could issue necessary papers for the Burmese identification process.

Burmese authorities would maintain officials to identify workers' nationality in Ranong, send more officials to Chiang Rai's Mae Sai checkpoint, and possibly send officials to be stationed at a border checkpoint in Nakhon Sawan, he said.