“We have been discussing with Thai officials about sending more workers in its fishery sector since last year,” U San Maung Oo, Myanmar Labour Attaché in Thailand told the The Myanmar Times.

He said the discussions on Myanmar workers being employed in the Thai fishery sector have been held in at least two bilateral talks between the two countries.

Myanmar asked for proposal about the standards on how they would hire the workers, also asking that proper facilities should be provided to the Myanmar workers, but Thailand has not given its proposal yet, U San Maung Oo said.

“There were some demands the fishery business could not provide. We told them we will not send our labour if they can’t protect their welfare and provide them with proper facilities,” he added.

According to a Thai Labour Ministry statement, the Thai Fisheries Association is now facing the labour shortage and needs more than 40000 workers.

It said it is ready to import foreign workers under the Memorandum of Understanding between Myanmar and Thailand, in order to address the insufficient labour in the fishery sector.

According to a report of Bangkok Post, Thailand is targeting workers from Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam to fill the labour gap in its fishery sector.

“They urgently need workers for their fishery sector. For our part, we want to make sure that our workers get the proper protection,” said Labour Attaché U San Maung Oo.

U Htoo Chit, director of Foundation of Education Development (FED) in Southern of Kingdom said that sending workers in the Thai Fishery sector should be under the government-to-government system.

“Because fishery job is different from other kinds of jobs, we need guarantee from the Thai government.  It is a dangerous work. The job needs much healthcare benefits, ” he said.

He also said that the Myanmar government must have the systematic policy for protecting the migrants and his organisation has already submitted suggestions to the government concerning some issues that should be included in developing policies related to migrant affairs.

More than 100,000 Myanmar workers are working in the fishery sector, over 40,000 of them are employed in Thai fishing boats, while about 45,400 are working in fishery-related industries. Another 58,741 Myanmar workers are employed in marine product factories.

At the moment, Myanmar has been sending over 10,000 workers to Thailand every month through a memorandum of understanding between the two governments.