Tak 'still faces labour shortage'

"Registration of migrant workers has not stopped migration from border provinces to provinces that pay higher wages," federation secretary Chaiwat Vititamwong said yesterday.

He was speaking at the "Migrant Workers and Benefits from Registration" seminar organised by the Rak Thai Foundation and Action Network for Migrant Workers.

The federation wants the new government to implement the 2008 Migrant Worker Bill, which would allow migrants to work in 22 provinces on the border and would help industry control migrant labourers in factories.

Since the government started registrations for migrant workers in 2004, most of the workers |have moved to bigger cities, rather |than staying in border provinces.

"After they register, they work with us to develop skills for a while, and then leave to get higher pay in other cities," he said. "This is why we are still facing a 30 to 40 per cent labour shortage every year."

Most of the industry in Tak's Mae Sot district consists of small and medium-sized manufacturers producing garments and shoes.

As of today, the final day for worker registration, about 30,000 migrants in Mae Sot have registered with Tak Employment Office. The figure does not include migrant workers in the agricultural sector. Authorities estimate that about 100,000 migrants work in Mae Sot.

Chaiwat said the number of registered migrant workers had fallen drastically from 50,000 in 2004.

"Most of them have travelled to Bangkok to seek higher salaries," he said. He said the industries in Mae Sot would face bankruptcy in the near future because of the new policy to increase daily minimum wages.

To solve the problem in the long term, Chaiwat said the government should set up a national panel comprising various stakeholders to draw up a blueprint for migrant workers. The plan would reflect the real situation in handling migrant-worker problems in local areas. In the past, the government's migrant-worker policy had changed constantly and never clearly implemented, he added.

Meanwhile, Action Network for Migrant Workers coordinator Satient Phanporm said he agreed with the federation in asking the government to implement the Migrant Worker Bill.

He said the bill would allow all stakeholders to draw up a master plan to resolve migrant worker issues.

However, migrant workers should have the right to travel, he added.

Ma Ei, a 28-year-old migrant who has worked in Mae Sot district for 11 years, said she did not agree with the federation's recommendation.

"The right to move to other areas to seek higher salaries is fundamental for human beings. If you want to move to other areas, so do I," she said.

She doubted she would benefit from the increase in daily minimum wages, pointing out that migrants already received less than the minimum set by law.