The Thai Ministry of Labor (MOL) released a news statement on March 10 that around 225,810 migrant laborers failed to renew their work permits by the 28th of February this year.he news release further reported that 2010 registered a total of 932,255 migrant laborers, but only 706,445 renewed their permits this year.

“We estimated 80 to 90 percent are Burmese migrants among the missing migrants who failed to renew their work permits,” said Andy Hall, a consultant with Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF).

According to labor rights groups working in Thailand, there are one to two million Burmese migrant workers working in Thailand, but the majority are working illegally, and only a small number of workers possess a legal border passport and have passed the Burmese national verification (NV) process.

NV allows migrant workers the opportunity to stay in Thailand working for two two-year periods, in which the workers are allowed the freedom to travel throughout Thailand freely. The installation of the border passport used only in Thailand and Burma began last year, in which migrant workers from Burma were supposed to document that they were indeed Burmese citizens, at the same time, inadvertently notifying the Burmese government that they were working in Thailand.

Migrant workers in Thailand are not only mandated to possess a this border passport, but must also obtain a work permit that verifies for whom they are working in Thailand. This work permit allows workers to stay legally in Thailand, for a 3,800 baht work permit registration fee.

The Ministry of Labor (MOL) cites the following reasons for non-renewal: migrants returned home without informing their employer, migrant changed employers without informing Thai authorities, therefore becoming illegal workers, and migrants obtained unverified news that there will be a new registration period, and so in order to save money did not pay for the work permit knowing that they would have another chance soon.

The MOL also stated that in this case, the migrants misunderstood that they needed to pass the NV process before renewing their work permit and that the mistake of misunderstanding the process was unacceptable.

Andy Hall further explained that “Migrant workers may not have renewed [their permits] because they are scared of the NV process.” He said that the public awareness campaign on the NV process is unclear and the migrant workers, especially from Burma, do not understand the consequences, nor do they want to complete the process due to high costs.

Meanwhile, the MOL has sent the number of missing persons who did not renew their work permit to the Immigration office to order an urgent crackdown on these workers. This year 25 % did not renew their permits as opposed to previous years in which missing renewals were at only 10-15%.