By FRONTIER
A senior Labour Ministry official in Thailand has said it will not extend a deadline for the registration of migrant workers that expires on July 29, a Bangkok newspaper reported on July 14.
Mr Arak Phrommanee also said a crackdown on the illegal employment of migrant workers would begin as soon as the registration period ended, the Bangkok Post reported.
“The registration drive is designed to ensure more efficient management of migrant workers; it will help employers, too,” said Arak, the director-general of the Department of Employment.
Employers who hired undocumented migrant labour would be liable to a fine of THB100,000 (about K3.35 million) for each worker, he said.
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Thai labour authorities would work closely with police, immigration officers and security agencies to stamp out undocumented migrant workers, Arak said.
More than 800,000 migrant workers were expected to register before the deadline, the report said.
Arak said a total of 786,743 migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, as well as 17,218 dependents, had registered with the Thai authorities.
He dismissed claims that there were more than three million migrant workers in Thailand, saying the figure was fabricated.
Thailand’s second largest mobile phone operator, DTAC, told Frontier earlier this year it estimated that the country has about five million Myanmar residents. DTAC, that owns a Myanmar-language platform called Happy Myanmar, said the estimate was based on an analysis of SIM card use in Thailand.
