Migrant workers left in a mess

Thailand badly needs a more systematic and realistic plan to deal with migrant workers. For lack of one, racism, misplaced nationalism and laws carrying tough penalties are just making matters worse.
The government has eased up on enforcing a problematic law while the registration and nationality verification of migrant workers continues through June. Meanwhile, though, workers in Bangkok, Samut Sakhon, Phuket, Chon Buri and other provinces have lately been subjected to a 1979 law, freshly enforced by Labour Minister Adul Saengsingkaew, that bars foreigners from 39 specific professions. By law, foreigners can’t farm, trade, style or cut hair, or be tour guides, craftsmen, engineers or architects. 
The result has been the arrest of more than 1,600 migrants, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, who were working in the retail and service sectors. Many of them were street vendors or working in restaurants. If convicted, they could be jailed for five years, fined up to Bt100,000, or both.
The minister’s move seems likely to make it more difficult for the government to manage migrant workers. Thailand already has too many conflicting laws and uneven enforcement of them. The migrants working in Thailand come up against these shortcomings all the time. 
In recent decades, some two million documented workers from neighbouring counties have been legally allowed into just unskilled labour and housekeeping. In fact, they work in many of the 39 categories of jobs from which they’re legally prohibited. The Labour Ministry is being purely nationalistic with its crackdown, saying the foreign workers are usurping jobs that Thais could be doing. Some media reports have gone along with this incorrect line of thinking, characterising the migrants as an invading army that would turn Thais into their lackeys.
The issue is far too complex to be exploited so roughly. What’s needed, rather than xenophobia, is a relevant, comprehensive plan of action. There are several good reasons for this.
First, most Thais are educated enough – their society advanced enough economically – that they have little problem finding jobs, and not necessarily in the 39 fields from which foreigners are barred, many of which they would consider too menial.
Second, there have been calls for the 1979 law to be amended to match current circumstances. It no longer makes sense to reserve many of these professions for Thais when they’d rather not pursue them. And Thailand, after all, has been allowing foreigners to do this work for a long time. In the capital and many provinces, labouring in the fresh food markets has largely been the migrants’ turf.
Third, the government was last year forced to consider changes to new legislation governing migrant workers when the tough penalties it carried sent thousands of foreign labourers into a panic and infuriated their employers. Enforcement of that law has been delayed until the end of June, owing to the slow worker-registration process. When enforcement does begin, anyone employing unregistered migrants could be fined up to Bt800,000 per worker. Among the alterations being mulled is modernising the list of jobs from which foreigners are banned.
Unrealistic and obsolete laws are not just harmful. They are also prone to abuse by officials acting in their own interest. The 1979 law theoretically allows officials to walk into any fresh market and demand bribes from migrant vendors and traders. Arresting them in accordance with the law creates a separate problem, since detention space is short, so it’s easier to demand regular payoffs – or ignore the violations.