10,000 Lao workers upgrade status in Thailand

• Nov 16, 2017

Laos will continue to help register, upgrade nationality status and provide assistance for Lao workers who do not have legal documentation in Thailand.
At present, some 158,000 Lao nationals are currently working in Thailand but only 70,000 hold work permits and can be considered to be legally employed.

A senior official from the assistance centre in Bangkok reported this information last week to Lao Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Mr Bounkhong Lasoukan, when he visited the centre, which was set up under a recent cooperation agreement between Laos and Thailand. 
The official said the centre could register and upgrade the status of 300-400 Lao workers each day by confirming their nationality.
“From August until the end of November we will register and upgrade the status of over 10,000 Lao nationals, of whom about 9,786 are workers,” he said. 
“About 955 people work in construction, 1,389 in the production and industrial sector, 1,862 in agriculture, 589 in fisheries, and 4,991 work in other fields,” he added.  
The centre aims to confirm the nationality of workers so that officials are better placed to uphold their rights and ensure they do not suffer from mistreatment, under the ministry’s labour policy.  
For several years, Lao workers in Thailand have not received protection under Thai law because they have not upgraded their status.    
All Lao nationals who carry work permits have legal working status in Thailand.
The Thai government has introduced pink cards for foreign workers without full documentation as an interim measure. This gives workers time to apply for the necessary documents including a work permit and visa as well as a passport after confirming their nationality with their country of origin.
Thailand has also set up assistance centres in all of its provinces to register Lao workers who can prove their identity.   
According to the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, some 71,000 Lao workers in Thailand who hold purple cards (work permits) have still not proven their identity.
Lao workers account for about 10 percent of the 1.5 million casual labourers from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar who are employed in Thailand.

Source: http://www.vientianetimes.org.la/FreeContent/FreeConten_10.html