The government is speeding up nationality verification of migrant workers and they will be allowed to work for two years after they complete the process, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said yesterday.
Speaking after chairing the policy committee on migrant worker management and human trafficking suppression, Gen Prawit said the migrant worker issue was discussed at length in the meeting, especially nationality verification.
"After the nationality verification process is completed, the migrant workers will be allowed to work for two years," he said.
Gen Prawit also noted that the government is still working on the human trafficking report, hoping to upgrade the country's status in the US Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report this year.
The improved labour situation will bring the country's fishing standards to meet the European Union's international fishing standards related to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU), according to the defence minister.
"We are working hard. A number of regulations were implemented, along with the strict measures to tackle the problems related to human trafficking and forced labour," he said.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, meanwhile, said in his weekly Returning Happiness to the People programme that the government has been taking the human trafficking problem seriously, particularly helping victims as foreign countries have been monitoring how authorities are handling them.
"Victims are those who have been lured into labour, whether on land or on fishing vessels at sea. We need to consider how we care for these victims, and whether we have rehabilitated them," the premier said.
"The government places great importance on issues of human rights, human trafficking and IUU fishing. There is a clear deadline for us to update on our progress and for concrete and progressive results to be shown," he added.