简体中文
The Thai government was on Monday urged to speed up the official process for the legalization of migrant workers hired by the fishing industry.
Kamonsak Lertpaibul, secretary general of Thailand's National Fisheries Association, insisted that the military-led government suspended the process for the authorities to legalize a large number of undocumented migrant workers, mostly from Myanmar, who may be employed as crew members for Thai fishing boats.
The Thai authorities were urged to register the migrants as legal workers, rather than wait for the time-consuming verification of their nationality by the authorities in their home country, said the secretary general.
"The verification of the migrants' nationalities usually takes a long period of time on the part of the authorities of their home country. Instead of waiting for responses from abroad, the Thai authorities should promptly legalize the migrant workers otherwise they would remain illegal aliens whom the fishing industry could not employ.
"For instance, if migrant workers report themselves as Myanmar, let's take for granted at the moment that they are Myanmar nationals unless otherwise refuted by the authorities of their home country at a later date," said Kamonsak.
He admitted that a large number of Myanmar migrants are still employed illegally by Thai fishing industry due to the alleged red tape in the legalizing process.
"One half of the migrant workforce in Thai fishing industry was reported to have already been legalized but the other half still remains as illegal workers.
"In some case, one half of the crew members aboard a fishing boat managed to escape arrests by the authorities while sailing in the sea because they were undocumented or illegally employed. The sustained lack of legal migrant workers has immensely affected our fishing industry," he said.
He urged the authorities to continue to legalize the undocumented migrant workers especially those employed by fishing industry where the demand is huge, he said.
Some Myanmar migrant workers were reported to have been hired aboard Thai fishing boats and others at seafood processing factories in Samut Sakorn province on the southwestern outskirts of Bangkok.
An estimated 3 million Myanmar migrant workers are currently employed at workplaces throughout Thailand, either legally or illegally.
Prime Minister Gen. Prayut Chan-o-cha earlier instructed the authorities to legalize as many migrant workers as possible and to see to it that no government officials be involved in any human trafficking scams which would only keep them illegally employed or abused.
Government personnel found involved in such wrongdoing will be subject to harsh penalties on criminal and disciplinary charges.
They could possibly be immediately dismissed from office and faced legal actions, said the premier.
Gen. Prayut earlier expressed concerns that Thailand was pressed to work harder than ever to combat human traffickings by the International Labor Organization and the U.S. government which relegated this country to the so-called Tier 3 on a Trafficking in Persons list. Enditem
