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Labour officials are courting rights groups ahead of scheduled meetings with Thai counterparts later in the week. The consultation with local experts today will take place just before Thai officials land in Yangon for bilateral meetings on January 8 and 9 aimed at sorting out the finer points of an ongoing migrant verification scheme. The bilateral meeting agenda includes renewing a Memorandum of Understanding on overseas employment, attempting to regularise the status of temporary “pink card” holders and discussing long-term policy planning, according to a migrant affairs officials at Myanmar’s labour ministry. Before meeting the Thai officials, the Ministry of Labour requested input from four migrant affairs groups: the Migrant Worker Rights Network, the Joint Action Committee for Burmese Affairs, The Myanmar Association in Thailand and the Myanmar Migrant Network in Bangkok. U Sein Htay, country director of the Migrant Worker Rights Network, said he will suggest to the ministry today that it seeks an agreement with Thailand on a way for migrants to renew documents that is not strenuous, timely and expensive. Those who obtained legal documents to work abroad through previous arrangements, such as through the MoU procedure or the national verification process, need a way to renew their passports and visas, he said. Currently, their only option is a trip back to Myanmar, which is untenable for many. As a result, they end up losing their legal status. “We need to resolve this immediately, as well as re-sign the MoU,” U Sein Htay said. He added that long-term “safe migration paths” also need to prioritised at the talks. Migrant rights advocates estimate between 3 and 4 million Myanmar citizens work in Thailand, with the bulk of the labour force undocumented. Last month, Thailand ordered Myanmar officials to stop providing temporary documents to migrant workers who had signed up for regularisation during a temporary amnesty window in 2014. The latest interruption to the process appears to be driven by a lack of bilateral coordination on what kind of identification documents would be considered valid.
Keywords
labour officials, rights, Thai officials, Yangon, verification scheme, long-term policy, migrants, Ministry of Labour
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