FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Employers turn up at one-stop service centre to register migrant workers

Employers turn up at one-stop service centre to register migrant workers

A large number of Thai employers in Samut Songkhram province on Wednesday showed up to register their migrant labourers or renew their documents at the “one-stop service” centre before end of the March 31 deadline.

Many admitted to being worried about the hefty fines of Bt400,000-Bt800,000 for illegal employment of foreign workers under the 2017 Decree on Migrant Worker Management, which was enacted last June.
Samut Songkhram employment official Athaya Amnongpho said this central province had about 10,000 migrant workers who must be registered or whose employment documents must be renewed. They included 700 workers in the fishing and fish/marine-life processing industry whose work permits had expired on November 1, 2017; some 3,000 migrant workers who had passed the employer-employee relations screening; and some 6,000 migrant workers carrying “Pink Card” identification of their non-Thai status, which allows them to stay and work until March 31 in Thailand under a government relaxation to avoid labour shortage.
Since February 5 when the registration period opened until as of February 19, a total of 2,114 migrant workers underwent the due process including 1,949 Myanmar people, 23 Laos and 142 Cambodians, Athaya said. She urged employers to collect queue cards at the Samut Songkhram Employment Office in Tambon Lat Yai of Muang district before heading to the “one-stop service” to save time.
The migrant worker registration period from February 5 to March 31 follows the January 16 Cabinet resolution on management of the 1 million Myanmar, Lao and Cambodian workers. The Cabinet approved a proposal allowing migrant workers in the fishing industry and fish/marine life processing industry whose work permits had expired since November 1, 2017 to work in Thailand until November 1, 2019, those who had passed the employer-employee relations screening, or those carrying the “Pink Card” to work in Thailand until March 31, 2020. The Cabinet mandated these workers to register with the “one-stop service” centres in their respective provinces before March 31.
As for migrant workers who had not yet undergone the nationality identification process, the Cabinet would allow them to stay and work in Thailand until June 30 this year, pending completion of the process – if they are registered with the “one-stop service” centres before March 31. After completing the national identification procedure, the workers would be allowed to stay and work in Thailand until March 31, 2020 – while those working in the fishing industry could remain until November 1, 2019. 

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