Meet held on Lao migrant workers

Laotian and Thai authorities have held talks this week on regulating Lao migrant workers in the Kingdom, a senior Laotian government official has said.

Thailand’s Department of Employment has registered more than 150,000 Laotian workers who did not have the required legal documents. However, many more workers have yet to be registered, the National News Bureau of Thailand (NNT) reported.

Registration began in June and would be complete next month, Dr Bounma Sitthisom, deputy director-general of the Skill Development and Employment Department under the Laotian Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, said yesterday.

Those who have been registered have received temporary permits allowing them to work legally in Thailand until next March.

“Officials on both sides are currently holding talks on how to work together to legalise the migrant workers,” Bounma said.

Laotian authorities are expected to travel to Thailand to work with their Thai counterparts to set up a one-stop service where illegal migrant workers can obtain legal documents.

“The issuance of legal documents to these workers will expire in March next year,” Bounma said, adding that the outcomes of the talks were still unavailable.

The talks focused on four main issues: how to prove the workers’ nationality; registration of labourers in the fishery industry; measures to deal with Laotians workers who are at the end of the four-year stay allowed by the Thai government; and how to deal with workers who cross the border to work in Thailand and return to Laos daily, according to the NNT.

Bounma warned all illegal Lao workers to register with the Thai authorities so they will be eligible to apply for documents that will enable them to work legally in Thailand for four years in line with a memorandum of understanding the two governments had signed.

“Only those workers who have been registered will be eligible to apply for legal documents,” he said.

According to the MoU on labour cooperation between Laos and Thailand, a Lao with legal documents is allowed to work in Thailand for two years, with the chance of another two-year extension.

After reaching the four-year limit, the worker must return to Laos and work there for three years before being permitted to return and work in Thailand again.

The Laotian government recently set up temporary service centres at border checkpoints. They remained open until August 24 for the purpose of registering Lao workers who were expected to return from Thailand, after the Thai authorities took tough action to regulate foreign workers in the country.

The registration process, which compiles information on the returnees, aims to help returning workers to seek other employment opportunities.

Bounma said registration at these checkpoints was being finalised.

By: Vientiane Times, republished at The Nation