The vice-minister of Myanmar’s Department of Social Welfare has said that labor attachés will be positioned in those countries which have large amount of Myanmar migrant workers.”We have labor attachés in Thailand and [South] Korea, and we have plans to assign them in Malaysia too,” said Win Maw Tun at a Lower House of Parliament session on March 12.

She said the ministry had drawn up a draft law on Labor Migration policy based on international standards. She said it had already been approved by the President’s office and had been submitted to the Union Government.

Currently, temporary passports have been issued to a total of 1.2 million Myanmar people enabling them to work in neighboring Thailand.

According to Andy Hall, an expert on Myanmar migrant labor, some 6 million Myanmars-perhaps 10 percent of the country’s population-now live abroad.

However, in December, Myanmar’s Ministry of Labour, Employment and Social Security announced that according to its data some three million Burmese are currently working abroad-the vast majority in neighboring Thailand.

By Khin Myo Thwe
Published on 18 March 2013