BANGKOK, 11 June 2012 – The Labor Ministry has extended the foreign worker registration period, from June 14th to December 14th this year, after it has found that many migrant workers still have not registered to be legal workers.
The ministry has revealed that currently over 1 million migrant workers are legal. Ninety percent of them are Burmese, followed by Cambodian and Laotian. However, the number of illegal migrant workers remains high; therefore, the Labor Ministry has decided to extend the period for foreign labor registration to December.
Currently, the government is encouraging foreign workers from neighboring countries to work in Thailand. When the nation was hit by flood last year, many foreign workers returned to their home countries and never come back. As aresult, Thailand is now in need of more foreign workers, especially in the fields of fishery, agriculture, and construction.
As the ASEAN Community is set to take place in 2015, an expert on alien worker management has suggested that the government prepare to bring in migrant workers as demand for labor will eventually rise. He said that workers in all provinces must be legal, and training is needed to develop their skill.
