BANGKOK, Dec 14 – Thailand faces an imminent acute labour shortage with more than one million migrant workers expected to be repatriated this weekend for failing to have completed nationality verification as required by the government, a senior member of the Thai Chamber of Commerce (TCC) said today.
TCC Deputy Chairman Pumin Harinsut said the mass repatriation will greatly affect the manufacturing industry, as well as the tourism and hospitality sectors, contributing to reduced possible exports next year by as much as 5 per cent.
Thailand requires migrant workers to pass a complex nationality verification procedure by the end of the day today, and those who fail to leave the country will be prosecuted.
Mr Pumin said the TCC is awaiting the government’s immediate response to deal with the problem now that Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has acknowledged the issue.
The cabinet earlier announced that repatriated workers could be re-employed in accord with agreements made with the migrant workers home countries.
Pote Aramwatananont, a TCC officer, said the government has not consulted the private sector on the re-employment of migrant workers regarding agreements reflected in various memoranda of understanding and that the new procedure will merely facilitate the Labour Ministry procedures, not the private sector where the workers are to be employed.
He said the repatriation of migrant workers without privision of new workers will have a severe negative impact on Thailand’s industrial manufacturing. agricultural production, food processing, fisheries, and the construction sector – all of which rely heavily on migrant labour.
Damage to the construction industry alone may reach 20 per cent of the sector’s total value, he said.
The Labour Ministry reported that 356.351 migrant workers are awaiting nationality verification while others working illegally in Thailand could number 500,000-800,000 persons. They are mainly from Myanmar, the Lao PDR and Cambodia.
