Monday, February 22, 2010

Thailand Serious About Deporting Unregistered Migrant Workers

Thursday, February 18, 2010
By LAWI WENG
The Irrawaddy News Magazine

Thai authorities say that despite protests by human rights groups they are proceeding with plans to deport up to 1.4 million migrants who fail to complete national verification procedures by the end of February. About 80 percent of the migrants threatened with repatriation are Burmese.
Jackie Pollock, a founder of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP), a Chiang Mai-based NGO, said, “They [the Thai authorities] told us they will go ahead with the process of deporting migrants.”
The Thai language newspaper Thai Rath on Thursday quoted Jirisak Sukhonchaat, director general of the Thai government's employment department, as saying that Dep Prime Minister Maj-Gen Sanan Kajornprasart, in his capacity as chairman of the alien workers management committee, had appointed officials to arrest and deport migrant workers who failed to complete national verification formalities by the end of February.

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