The Thai Labour Ministry has recently prescribed colour-coded employment cards under the forthcoming registration for workers from Burma, Laos and Cambodia to differentiate the type of work they will do, according to reports in the daily Thai newspaper Khomchadleuk last week.

The colour cards are:

•    Blue card is for fisheries

•    Green card – agriculture

•    Yellow card- construction

•    Orange card- seafood factories

•    Gray card- domestic work

•    Pink card – general

Workers holding pink cards can access 19 kinds of work, the report said.

Even though migrant workers holding new registration cards will be allowed to work legally, they will only be appointed after Thai citizens fail to apply. But they will have the right to access basic rights as Thai citizens.

On June 2, the Alien Employment Administration meeting (Kaw Raw Phaw) chalked out a new policy that makes it mandatory for employers  to give priority to Thai citizens allowing them a week to apply if there is a job vacancy.

The meeting also arrived at a decision to offer a new round of labour registration to new migrant workers and existing workers who previously did not have legal status.

“People who entered the country after the decision was made will not be allowed to apply for the registration. They will also be arrested and sent back,” Labour Minister Paitoon Kaewthong was quoted in the report as saying.

During the registration period, security on the border checkpoints would be beefed up to stop outsiders from coming to “seize the opportunity.”

He also said that all work permit cards will expire on 28 February 2010. After that employers must ask their workers to apply for passport document.

In Chiangmai province, the registration for new workers will start from July 1, a member of a rights group said.

Employers who are willing to appoint new workers can ask for a quota at the Employment Department office, she said.

Now, workers holding current permits have been asked to apply for another year’s extension since early June. They were also required to apply for the nationality verification process at the same time, according to a worker who was also required to submit the form.

People who pass the process of nationality verification by their country will be allowed to work for another two years.

According to the report, about 500,000 migrant workers have registered with the Labour Ministry till now. There are at least two million legal and illegal migrant workers in Thailand.