The Department of Employment (DoE) is defending its efforts to solve Thailand's illegal migration problem after it was blasted by a migrant workers' advocacy group for failing to come up with a clear and transparent mechanism for illegal migrants to apply for amnesty and work legally in the country.
In a recent seminar on labour issues, Migrant Working Group (MWG) representative Adisorn Kerdmongkol said the amnesty process that illegal migrant workers must go through is unnecessarily complicated and prone to corruption.
For instance, he said, the registration for labour amnesty, which only opens four times per year, takes a worker at least five days to complete, but the system is only open for 15 days each time.
As all illegal migrant workers who wish to continue working in Thailand must complete their registration by Feb 13, around 700,000 foreign workers might have to leave because the registration system is too complicated, Mr Adisorn added.
Thanaporn Wichan, a labour rights activist, concurred with Mr Adisorn saying the DoE has to do more to protect workers.
In response to the criticisms, DoE director-general Pairoj Chotikasathien said the department rolled out its online registration system in an effort to address concerns about transparency.
That said, Mr Pairoj stood by the decision to limit the labour amnesty registration to four 15-day periods each year, saying it was taken to protect national security.
"A longer registration period will attract more people to come into Thailand illegally in order to benefit from the amnesty. As the scheme is only open to illegal migrant workers from Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam who are already employed by Thai employers, 15 days are enough," he said.
Responding to MWG's criticism about the complexity of the online registration system, Mr Pairoj said labour officials in each province are able to help workers who are not technologically savvy.
He rejected MWG's claim that 700,000 migrant workers will be forced out of the labour system by Feb 13, saying the department has increased the capacity of its three mobile offices to serve 1,200 workers a day.