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Published on July 20, 2007

Thailand has come to the realisation that in order improve the working conditions and welfare of foreign labourers and semi-skilled workers living here, the country needs to stem the tide of illegal immigrants from neighbouring Burma, Cambodia and Laos. For more than 10 years, Thai employers have been filling jobs in their fishing fleets, seafood-processing plants, rice mills, textile factories, construction sites, farms and sawmills with migrant workers who have already successfully entered the country illegally.

For too long, the ready availability of a huge pool of illegal immigrant labourers within the country has made it possible for many unscrupulous Thai employers to exploit the situation by imposing long working hours for meagre wages, while neglecting to provide workers with proper accommodation or see to their welfare.

The exploitation and unfair treatment of foreign workers continues, even though the government currently requires Thai employers to register all foreign workers in their employ. This can be attributed to various factors including ineffective monitoring, the fact that some government officials can be bribed to turn a blind eye to the employment of illegal migrant workers, or because many illegal immigrants who have been in the country long enough tend to shop around for jobs and move around frequently as a result. All of these factors have combined to derail any attempt by the government to improve the working conditions and welfare of foreign workers in this country.

There is no reliable data on the number of foreign workers in Thailand, but unofficial estimates put the number at between 1 million and 2 million at any given time. Of these, only about 500,000 were officially registered as of June 30, this year's deadline for the registration of foreign workers. That was a sharp decrease from the 700,000 foreign workers who were registered last year. Obviously, many may have crossed Thailand's porous borders back into their countries of origin, while many others may have gone underground and joined the growing ranks of illegal immigrants in this country.

Sensing that having such a large number of undocumented foreigners in the country poses a serious threat to national security, as well as health challenges and social problems, the Surayud government has come up with a new initiative to make arrangements for the more formal and orderly employment of foreign workers, possibly through cooperation with the governments of labour-exporting countries such as Burma, Cambodia and Laos.

Under this new initiative, the Thai government may also arrange for the recruitment of contract workers from countries that have, up until now, not been a traditional source of labour, such as Vietnam and countries from the Indian subcontinent.

The rationale for the initiative is that by arranging for contract workers to come to Thailand to work on specific projects or under quotas that can be updated on a yearly basis, it will be easier for authorities to monitor the situation and make sure that foreign labourers get decent wages, are provided with proper accommodation and medical care, and that their basic human rights are protected.

Let's not forget that there are more than 100,000 Thai workers who work in Middle Eastern countries, Taiwan, South Korea and Singapore through government-to-government arrangements and they are generally well taken care of by their foreign employers as a result. Thailand should adopt the same strategy for foreign workers employed here.

The goal of better treatment for foreign workers should not only be focused on keeping them motivated and improving their productivity. Thai society must also take a longer view beyond the short-term benefits that Thailand is getting from these workers. Acting as gracious hosts by treating foreign workers well should be seen as part of the effort to promote goodwill between Thais and the citizens of neighbouring countries.

But to do this, the government must redouble its efforts to crack down on illegal immigrants, finding ways to repatriate them in an orderly manner, as well as to stem new waves of would-be immigrants from entering the country illegally. To ensure such operations are well coordinated, it might be necessary to set up a new agency to deal with all aspects related to the employment of foreign workers.