Multiple crackdowns have been carried out in the past two months on illegal migrant workers, and the employers who hired them, resulting in the detention of 1,179 workers, according to the Department of Employment.
The figure represents less than 1% of the 162,130 workers whose documents were checked during inspections at 12,983 workplaces nationwide from June 5 until Thursday. Violations were found at 438 workplaces, or 3.3% of the total checked.
Migrants caught working in Thailand without a permit or doing jobs they aren’t allowed to do are subject to fines of between 5,000 and 50,000 baht, deportation and a two-year ban from applying for permission to work in the country, said Somchai Morakotsriwan, the director-general of the department.
Employers hiring an illegal migrant worker or making a legal migrant worker do work he or she isn’t allowed to do are subject to a fine of between 10,000 and 100,000 baht per worker illegally hired, he said.
Repeat offences carry further penalties of up to a year in prison, a fine of between 50,000 and 200,000 baht per employee, and a three-year ban on hiring new migrant workers.
Of the 1,179 migrant workers detained by a authorities from various agencies, 724 were Myanmar nationals, 190 Cambodian, 162 Lao, 22 Vietnamese and 81 from other countries, said Mr Somchai.