Thailand aims to employ army of 150,000 migrant workers to solve labour shortage

Thailand is looking to bring in more labourers from neighbouring countries with the help of recruitment agencies, as the government seeks to employ an army of around 150,000 foreign workers to make up for the country’s low percentage of people willing to do manual labour jobs. But the general public is worried about the clutter and spread of Covid-19 from migrant workers, sparking a debate about immigration procedures.

The labour ministry is attempting to solve the shortage in labour in two ways. The first is to use the labour memorandum of understanding procedure, or MoU, to bring in people from three neighbouring contries to work for Thai companies, according to the director-general of the Department of Employment, Pairoj Chotikasathien.

Thailand employers have already used the MoU platform to apply to recruit nearly 168,00 workers, requesting approximately 117,000 people from Myanmar, 39,000 people from Cambodia and 12,000 people from Laos. So far, 144,709 of the applicants have been approved, with applications submitted to their home countries. Around 6,000 workers from Cambodia and Laos have already entered Thailand.

The second way to address labour shortages is by allowing migrant workers who are currently in Thailand stay and work legally. More than 2 million workers who have already arrived in Thailand can now apply for jobs and stay in Thailand rather than returning to their home countries, Pattaya Mail reported.

SOURCE: Pattaya Mail