BANGKOK, Thailand — December 29, 2014 — The Thai government was on Monday urged to speed up the official process for the legalization of migrant workers hired by the fishing industry.
Kamonsak Lertpaibul, secretary general of Thailand's National Fisheries Association, insisted that the military-led government suspended the process for the authorities to legalize a large number of undocumented migrant workers, mostly from Myanmar, who may be employed as crew members for Thai fishing boats.
The Thai authorities were urged to register the migrants as legal workers, rather than wait for the time-consuming verification of their nationality by the authorities in their home country, said the secretary general.
"The verification of the migrants' nationalities usually takes a long period of time on the part of the authorities of their home country. Instead of waiting for responses from abroad, the Thai authorities should promptly legalize the migrant workers otherwise they would remain illegal aliens whom the fishing industry could not employ.
"For instance, if migrant workers report themselves as Myanmar, let's take for granted at the moment that they are Myanmar nationals unless otherwise refuted by the authorities of their home country at a later date," said Kamonsak.