Labourers call for quicker passport processing

The Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare has admitted that it is a long and difficult process for Lao labourers to obtain a passport and work permit in order to work in Thailand .

“We are familiar with the problems you raise and are seeking cooperation with the sectors concerned to address the matter,” the Director General of the Labour Development and Recruitment Department, Mr Phouvanh Chanthavong, told government officials and NGO staff at a launching ceremony for the government policy on migration safety, held in Vientiane on Friday.

Mr Phouvanh spoke to those attending the ceremony after hearing the results of a study on the enforcement of the Lao-Thai Memorandum of Understanding on labour employment cooperation.

According to the study, Lao labourers have expressed interest in working in Thailand legally in accordance with Lao government policy, but many of them complain that it takes several months to get a passport and work permit.

They also have to pay quite a lot of money to have these documents processed.

The lengthy nature of the process is causing some labourers to cross the border illegally, even though this informal method of labour recruitment is dangerous and puts labourers at risk of becoming victims of human trafficking, the study points out.

Mr Phouvanh said the Labour Development and Recruitment Department was active in cooperating with various sectors to find solutions to the problem.

He explained that to obtain a passport, an applicant needed to produce a pack of documents, including birth and residency certificates. Some of the official letters required needed signatures from district and provincial officials.

He said that after learning this, he had requested the sectors concerned to reduce the number of official documents required and to consider accepting only an identification card.

Mr Phouvanh observed that because many of these documents had to be submitted in order to acquire an ID card, this form of identification should be sufficient.

He noted that labourers would need an ID card in any case. He said the length of time it took to get a passport was partly due to the fact that most labourers did not know what documents to submit or where to get them.

“Some applicants do not even know how to write their names,” he said.

Mr Phouvanh confirmed that the Lao-Thai MoU was enforceable and needed cooperation from everyone involved.

Despite these problems, he said, the Lao government had been able to send some 7,521 labourers to jobs in Thailand under the MoU since it came into effect in 2002.

The Thai government has announced that it needs a further 65,000 workers this year and the department is discussing the matter with labour recruitment companies.

Mr Phouvanh said the department had ordered these companies to train workers in the necessary skills before sending them to Thailand so that they could perform their jobs efficiently.

By Ekaphone Phouthonesy
(Latest Update March 10, 2008)