Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has put a hold on the approval of an Interior Ministry announcement, extending the stay in Thailand of about 100,000 migrant workers from Cambodia.
Traisuree Traisoranakul, the prime minister’s secretary-general, said that Anutin wants to ensure that the migrant workers are properly screened, their identities verified and that laws are strictly enforced, adding that lax scrutiny may pose security problems in the future.
The Labour and Interior ministries are tasked with conducting the screenings and managing migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
On August 19th, the Cabinet of then acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai agreed to allow migrant workers from Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, whose work permits expired in February, to stay on to work for another year, to ease the unskilled labour shortage in some sectors.
Traisuree did not say whether the prime minister’s decision is related to yesterday’s landmine explosion on the Thai-Cambodian border, which injured four Thai soldiers, one of them seriously.
