Cambodian workers are slowly trickling back into Thailand, all of them with the new price-cut US$4 Cambodian passports announced by Phnom Penh.
People go through the Khlong Luek checkpoint in Aranyaprathet on Monday. - PATTANAPONG HIRUNARD
Cambodia on Friday slashed the fee for a passport to $4 from $135, making it affordable for people to work in Thailand legally.
The low fee applies only to those applying through Cambodia's labour department or licensed recruitment companies.
The first group of 222 workers with the new, low-priced passports crossed the border into Aranyaprathet, Sa Kaeo province, on Monday, according to a Thairath Online report.
They were headng for jobs at a food factory in Songkhla, under the memorandum of understanding between the foreign affairs ministries of the two countries, the report said.
About 20 recruitment companies in Cambodia are now busy accepting applicants from formerly illegal workers in Thailand who want to return legally, the report said.
An estimated 200,000 Camdodians fled Thailand in fear of a crackdown on the foreign workforce
The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) said earlier it would set up a one-stop registration service centre for migrant workers and discuss the guidelines for entry along the borders in Chanthaburi, Trat and Surin provinces.