Employers must be responsible for travel expenses for migrant workers who enter Thailand under a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on labour cooperation, Employment Department director-general Waranon Pitiwan said yesterday.
The measure is part of the government's improvement of laws on migrant labourers to be on par with international standards in a bid to enhance their working conditions and livelihoods in Thailand.
Aside from travel costs, all migrants workers, regardless of their nationality, will receive similar protection to Thai employees, he said.
Mr Woranon was speaking after returning from a trip to Vietnam to discuss labour cooperation with Pham Viet Huong, deputy director-general of the Vietnamese Overseas Labour Department.
The bilateral meeting aimed to ask for cooperation from the Vietnamese government to encourage their people to work in Thailand legally under the MoU on labour cooperation after a number of Vietnamese migrants, who overstayed their tourist visas, were found to be working illegally in Thailand. The discussion also centred on recruiting more Vietnamese labourers to work in the domestic fishery and construction industries due to a huge labour shortage.
Mr Waranon said Thailand needed a considerable number of migrant labourers in both fields as a result of the country's economic growth and construction of numerous infrastructure development projects.
Although most Vietnamese people were more interested in the tourism industry, the government needed to address the issue at hand first.
However, if migrant workers comply with the law, the government might consider allowing them to work in other industries as well, he said.
Mr Waranon said migrant workers from neighbouring countries must register to work legally in Thailand under the MoU between the Thai government and their own.
Under the MoU, it states migrants must be verified by their home countries while current migrant workers in Thailand are required to pass a nationality verification process conducted by Thai officials to extend their work period in the country.