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Published on January 12, 2008

Director-general of the Employment Department Manoon Punyakiriyakorn said the draft bill, which has been approved by the National Legislative Assembly, would also tackle a long-standing problem of employers exaggerating the number of workers needed in each province.

The new law requires employers to pay the per-head fee for employing immigrant workers, he said.

"If they ask for more workers than they need, they will have to pay hefty fees," he said, adding the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI) was studying this matter.

The draft bill would also allow alien workers - who sneaked into the Kingdom, or had their nationality revoked, or were waiting for repatriation - to apply for a permit to work temporarily during the waiting period. There were many workers under these three groups, leaving Thailand with the huge cost of taking care of them, he said, adding that allowing them to work temporarily would help reduce the financial burden.

Manoon said the draft also includes the setting up of a fund for immigrant workers' repatriation, which would require employers to deduct a certain amount from  each immigrant worker's monthly salary, to contribute to the fund. Officials were now working on how much contribution they should make, he added.

The draft law also authorises labour officials to arrest immigrant workers who break the law, without obtaining court orders or help from the police, if such a wrongdoing took place in front of the officials, Manoon said.

Manoon said he personally thought this new power was not a violation of rights or freedom because officials would only act if there was a sound reason. It would also be more useful in controlling illegal workers, compared to the previous practice that involved a time-consuming request for a court order or for the police to arrive, by which time the migrant worker might well have fled.

However, human-rights activist and researcher Adisorn Kerdmongkol, who also worked for the Network for Migrant Workers, said that such authority for labour officials to immediately arrest immigrant workers would not help solve any potential problems.

He said it could also be a channel for corruption among officials and request for bribes, worsening the migrant workers' problems.

 The Nation