AUTHORITIES are now rushing to legalise migrant workers in a bid to lessen the impact of the tough new law on migrant labour during the hastily imposed six-month reprieve.

Labour Ministry spokesman Ananchai Uthaipattanacheep said yesterday that Thailand was planning to set up temporary migrant-worker registration centres across the country in the next two weeks.

“This way, migrant workers who have some necessary documents will not have to head back to their home nation to process paperwork and come back,” he said.

He said Myanmar would open five centres in Thailand to help verify and issue necessary documents to Myanmar migrants.

“We believe Lao and Cambodian authorities will also agree to establish such centres in the next two weeks,” Employment Department director-general Varanon Peetiwan said.

The moves come after Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha invoked his special power as head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) under Article 44 of the Constitution to delay the enforcement of four key articles in the new law until the end of this year.

The suspended articles of the Executive Decree on Migrant Workers Management involve harsh punishments for illegal migrant workers and their employers. For example, the fine imposed on employers will range from Bt400,000 to Bt800,000 per illegal worker under the new law.

The government agreed to offer a grace period after the private sector complained loudly about the adverse impacts from the new law.

Industrial Works Department director-general Mongkol Pruekwatana said the new law affected the country’s labour-intensive industries such as fisheries and shoemaking, as migrant workers left their jobs because they were worried about the tough law.

“I believe after the respite, problems would be solved,” Mongkol said.

During the grace period, the NCPO has ordered the Labour Ministry to review and improve the new executive decree within the next four months.

“We are going to set up a committee to gather opinion from all relevant authorities,” Varanon said.

Prayut separately said the Labour Ministry would review the penalty clauses in the new law in response to concerns expressed by the private sector, which believes the punishments are too stringent.

Speaking at a forum organised by the Labour Ministry, Sai Tun Shwe, a representative of Myanmar migrant workers from Samut Prakan, said the law was not practical and would likely cause more problems if it was not amended.

“The first impact of this law is the severe penalties, which caused wide panic not only among the migrant workers but also the employers. This is causing a negative impact on all of us, but the law does not help solve the existing problems,” Sai Tun Shwe said.

He said the expensive fee and difficulties in the process of importing and registering migrant workers were a major obstruction to making migrant workers legal in Thailand, because migrant workers don’t have enough money, or an understanding of the procedures.

“Most migrant workers are in Thailand to make a living. If they cannot afford to be legal they will have to avoid these expensive procedures and become illegal workers,” he said.

Poj Aramwattananont, a representative of the business sector, said the major weakness of this law was it ignored the nature of migrant workers in Thailand, which resulted in problems in enforcing the law.

“The natural tendency of workers is to always move to the workplace that provides a better salary and welfare. But this law does not take into account this tendency,” Poj said.

“In order to improve this law, the government must consider all aspects of the migrant worker problem to make the law fit with the real situation, as our country still relies on this labour to drive our economy.”

Lae Dilokvidhyarat, a lecturer at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Economics, said that the government should focus on why employers are using illegal migrant workers and fix the problem at the root.

“The registration of migrant workers is expensive and difficult, so many business owners turn to illegal workers as a cheaper option. Therefore, we must make the process cheaper and easier to solve this problem,” Lae said.

In a related development, several schools for children of migrant workers in Tak province have closed this week as teachers are worried about the new law.

Burmese Migrant Teachers’ Association secretary U Naing Naing Tun told Karen News on June 29 that migrant school teachers were scared about a reported crackdown and were not coming to school.