The Ministry of Labour’s Inspector-General and spokesperson Mr. Ananchai Uthaipatanacheep gave a press briefing after Labour Minister General Sirichai Distakul welcomed H.E. Mr. Hun Manet, vice chairman of the committee for legalizing Cambodian workers residing in Thailand and a committee of Cambodian diplomats to Thailand. The parties discussed the nationality verification process and steps for issuance of travel document to Cambodian workers. The Ministry of Labour emphasized support for entrance of migrant workers through MOU channels, to which 251,545 out of 683,652 Cambodian workers have entered through MOU systems, and a total of 432,107 workers have pink cards and are awaiting the citizenship verification process. A total of 46,278 Cambodian workers currently work in the fishing and seafood processing industry with permits due to expire on 1 November 2017; another 385,829 workers in general industries are due to have permits expire on 31 March 2018. If Cambodia is able to complete the nationality verification process and issue travel documents in order to workers to apply for the relevant visas, the workers will be permitted another 2 years to remain working in the kingdom.
The Cambodian representatives agreed on 2 issues, which included the distribution of passports which Cambodia has been able to issue only 4,000 to date. The other issue was the nationality verification process for workers holding pink cards, where Cambodia promised to speed this up simultaneously with the passport issuance. The planned completion date for workers in the fishing and seafood processing industry is June 2017, and the remaining population of Cambodian workers within January 2018. Both Thai and Cambodian representatives agreed to the establishment of a working committee to consult details for passport issuance and nationality verification. The Labour Minister assigned the Department of Employment’s Director Mr. Woranant Peetiwan as the working committee’s lead. The team is scheduled to be formed within 15 day and all relevant parties will be informed of the location of passport distribution and the plans for the nationality verification process.
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