About 1.2 million migrant workers from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar have registered and applied to work in Thailand since application for registration started on January 16 and closed on the night of June 30.
Labour Minister Adul Saengsingkaew said on Sunday that of the 1,187,803 migrant workers registered, 777,217 are people from Myanmar, 350,840 are from Cambodia and 59,746 from Laos.
The total number of migrant workers this year constitutes 90 percent of the figures of 1,320,035 recorded in the ministry’s database.
Starting as of June, the minister said that officials of the ministry and police would start checking and looking for illegal migrant workers and will take legal actions against both the workers and their employers.
According to the law, illegal migrant workers will now be fined 5,000-50,000 baht if caught working without a permit, then deported and banned from returning to apply for work for two years.
Meanwhile, employers who hire illegal migrant workers will be liable to a maximum one-year imprisonment and/or a fine of between 50,000-200,000 baht and they will be banned from hiring migrant workers for three years.
The minister disclosed that there are now 3.2 million foreign workers working legally in Thailand.
