Activists urge deportation fund rethink

Dec 18, 2010
Bangkok Post

Labour activists are urging the Labour Ministry to review its policy on the new alien workers deportation fund.

The ministry recently issued a regulation requiring employers to dock alien workers' wages and contribute the money to a fund to deport illegal alien workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia back to their home countries. The regulation will take effect on Dec 27.

The fund aims to compel registered workers to contribute to the cost of sending illegal foreign workers back to their home countries.

Wandee Sribua-iam from the Cross-border Workers Employers Club in Samut Sakhon said employers of alien workers would gather to ask the government and the Labour Ministry to review their policy on the deportation fund.

They viewed the fund as forcing higher expenses on alien workers unnecessarily, while the Labour Ministry has not yet come up with a clear framework on the workers' entitlements and how the fund would be managed, said Ms Wandee.

According to the regulation, registered alien workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia who renew their work permits next year will have their monthly wages docked for six months.

Burmese and Lao workers are required to pay altogether a 2,400 baht contribution to the fund. For this reason, their wages will be docked by 400 baht a month. For Cambodian workers, they are required to contribute 2,100 baht in total to the fund. In other words, they will pay 350 baht a month.

Workers who fail to pay the required contribution will face a fine equivalent to 2% of it. Registered workers could claim their money back when they returned home.

Somsuk Khongkhachen, secretary of the Samut Sakhon Industrial Council, said it did not oppose the establishment of the fund but was complaining it does not have a clear operating framework.

Mrs Somsuk said the government had decided on the alien workers deportation fund without consulting stakeholders.

Yongyut Chalaemwong, a researcher at the Thailand Development Research Institute (TDRI), said several laws and regulations on alien workers have caused many poorly informed workers to become victims of extortion by various groups of people.