Delay migrant ID deadline, says activist

Registered alien workers will have till February 28 to apply for nationality verification. Failure to do so would result in immediate deportation.

“If you come forward and submit the applications now, you will have the right to live and work in Thailand,” the Employment Department’s chief Jeerasak Sukhonthachart said yesฌterday.

Alien workers must get verification stamps for their nationality within the two years the Thai government agrees to register them. So far, 1,315,932 “alien” workers have stepped forward.

As part of the registration process, they are required to get verification stamps of their nationality – but to date, just over 200,000 people have applied for nationality verification with the Employment Department.

Human Rights and Development Foundation chairman Gothom Arya asked PM Abhisit Vejjajiva yesฌterday to extend the deadline because many Burmese workers were having problems with nationality verificaฌtion.

“Some Burmese workers feel their lives are at risk if they have to go back to Burma. Political and ethnical conฌflicts are still going on there,” he said.

To get their nationality verified, Burmese workers have to go back to a certified agency in Burma’s Tachilek, Myawaddy or Ko Song.

Gothom said some workers didn’t understand the NV process and had failed to sign up for it.

A recent survey by the Migrant Working Group revealed 57 per cent of “alien” workers feared the process would put their families in peril. The survey covered 273 respondents in Bangkok, Samut Prakan, Pathum Thani, Chiang Mai, Tak, Ranong, Phuket and Surat Thani.

Some 20 per cent of respondents moved to Thailand because their human rights were violated or they were subject to ethnic or political conฌflict in their home country.

In all, 59 per cent said they did not want to undergo the process and 26 per cent said they would never pass, even if they went ahead with it.

Up to 30 per cent said they didn’t carry Burmaissued documents.

Gothom said if Thai authorities refused to extend the deadline, many Burmese would simply go underground and live here illegally.

“Some corrupt officials may then exploit these people,” he said.