Officials of Thailand’s Labour Ministry, backed by those who have successfully completed the process, have yet again urged migrant workers yesterday in Chiangmai to undergo the controversial national verification process.

Of more than 66,000 registered migrant workers in Chiangmai, 43,782 or roughly two-thirds, have submitted their completed national verification forms, Ms Phanthila Kaewboonruang of Chiangmai’s employment office told around 100 workers who attended the seminar at the Chiangmai University.

Of the 43,782, about 74 have received their passports and 1,182 have been approved.

The cost of acquiring a passport is B 4,000 ($ 124), excluding travel and accommodation, according to the officials:
Visa                             B 500
Health check              B 600
Social Insurance        B 1,900
Work permit               B 1,000

About half the participants have applied for passports. The remaining half said they were yet to apply, as most of them had fled Burma during the 1996-1998 forced relocations of 1,500 villages in Southern and Eastern Shan State. “Even before that we did not have household registers, let alone ID cards,” one participant told SHAN.

The Human Rights Development Foundation (HRDF), that had facilitated the seminar, said it would be sending a 5-point proposal to the Thai Government:
To extend the 28 February 2010 deadline for submission of completed national verification forms
To do away with the broker system
To set up Burma’s national verification offices where the migrant workers are
To launch greater publicity campaign among the workers
To allow unregistered workers to register

Chiangmai alone is said to have more than 100,000 unregistered workers. There are an estimated more than two million migrants from Burma in Thailand.