bust Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Not sure how well this is going to be received considering the economic climate at the moment. By LAWI WENG Ten thousand Burmese migrants will be issued new identification papers which a Thai official referred to as “passport documents,†according to the Office of Foreign Worker Administration (OFWA) in Thailand. The documents have already been issued to 30 Burmese migrants in Kawthaung Township in Burma on the Thai-Burmese border. Burmese illegal migrant workers sit in a prison cell at a police station in Ranong province, south of Bangkok. (Photo: Reuters) Suchart Sangurai, an OFWA analyst, said registration documents that are approved will be sent to the Burmese embassy in Bangkok and the embassy will notify migrants when they can pick up the documents at one of three border locations at Kawthaung, Myawaddy and Tachelik in Burma. Burmese officials will begin verifying the nationality of Burmese migrants on July 15. The deadline is Feb. 28, 2010. The identification document will effectively grant successful applicants a two-year work permit in Thailand. Each worker is required to pay a permit fee of 1,500 baht. Thai government officials said they hope the new registration process will stem the influx of illegal Burmese migrants into Thailand by offering the opportunity to work legally. Maung Myint, a Burmese deputy foreign minister, said at the opening of the office in Kawthung that he expected 400 Burmese migrants would apply for the papers, according to the Bangkok Post. Jackie Pollock, a founding member of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) in Thailand, urged the Burmese authorities to encourage Burmese migrants to register. Last month, Thai immigration authorities in Chiang Mai conducted a survey of Burmese migrants to determine how many intended to return to Burma to seek the document. However, sources close to the migrant community said that many Burmese who took part in the survey were reluctant to provide their real address in Burma for fear that the information could be used by the Burmese authorities to target family members still in the country. Thailand and Burma agreed to set up nationality identification centers for Burmese migrant workers in 2006. However, the two countries could not reach an agreement on where the registration centers would be located. Originally, the Burmese authorities wanted the centers to be located in Pa-an and Moulmein, the capitals of Karen and Mon states, respectively. However, their Thai counterparts objected, saying the towns were too far from the border. According to MAP, Thailand has 2 to 4 million migrant workersâ€â€some legal, but mostly illegalâ€â€from Burma, Cambodia and Laos. Thailand faces a severe labor shortage and is unable to meet its growing industrial worker demands, prompting officials to frequently revise registration procedures. The governments of Laos and Cambodia operate nationality identification centers in Thailand in cooperation with the Thai government. The centers have so far processed some 70,000 Lao and Cambodia workers and registered them with the Thai Labor Department. They are eligible to work in Thailand and have access to the same social welfare benefits as Thai workers, including legal support and medical services for their children. Burmese workers who have the new passports will be eligible for the same benefits, according to officials. Critics of Thailand’s migrant labor policies said that foreign workers who are formally registered typically receive substandard treatment when seeking benefits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
devils reject Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 No idea what your post is about as I can't stop staring at your new avatar. Wow! :hubba: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mentors Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 Burmese people doing underpay jobs which Thais doesn't want to do anymore. For example in the agricultural sector or gastronomy. btw, your new avatar should be banned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
simie Posted July 15, 2009 Report Share Posted July 15, 2009 No idea what your post is about as I can't stop staring at your new avatar. Wow! :hubba: My thoughts exactly Simie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CTO Posted July 16, 2009 Report Share Posted July 16, 2009 Her arse swallowed the string from the G Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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