The views expressed in this presentation are the

views of the author and do not necessarily reflect

the views or policies of the Asian Development
Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development
Country Presentation: Thailand
Bank (ADB), its Board of Directors, or the
governments they represent. ADBI does not
guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this
paper and accepts no responsibility for any
consequences of their use. Terminology used may
not necessarily be consistent with ADB official
terms.
Recent Changes
in Labour Migration Policies
in Thailand

18 January 2017 1
 1 Overall National Policy
has moved towards regularization of irregular
Labour Law Reform migrants through an open registration and nationality
2001 identification process of migrants and their family
members.

There are a number of laws in Thailand which govern labour migration, including,
Immigration Act (1979) - Ministry of Interior
Investment Promotion Act (1977) BOI
Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand Act (1979) Ministry of Industry
Employment and Job-seeker Protection Act (1985) - Ministry of Labour
The Alien Working Act (2008) - Ministry of Labour
Labour Protection Act (amended in 2008) - Ministry of Labour
and lots of other related announcements and Cabinets resoloutions..

18 January 2017 2
 2 Occupations And Professions Prohibited For Foreign Workers
national security career opportunities for Thais Economic growth/country Dev.

The List Appended To The Royal Decree In B.E.2522

Prescribing Occupations And Professions Prohibited For Foreign Workers
Prohibited
Usually, most labour works defined as the use of physical energy
in repeated tasks which do not require knowledge... for example,
o Supervising, auditing or providing services in accounting, except
internal auditing on occasions;
o Shoemaking;
o Haircutting, hairdressing or beauty treatment;
o Cloth weaving by hand;
o Bricklaying, carpentry or other construction work;
o Wood carving
o Tour guide or sightseeing tour operation
o Legal service or lawsuit work ........ and other 31 professions
Exceptions!!
As per the Cabinets Resolutions in 1990s, foreign workers from
Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia have been given an indulgence to work
in the Kingdom in 2 occupations, which are 1) Labour work and 2)
Domestic work . . . . .in 24 sectors such as retails, construction,
agriculture, factory-based manufacturing, service businesses ..etc.
The 3Ds jobs dirty, dangerous and demanding.
Also, as of 2015, labors from these 3 nationalities are also allowed
to have another occupation - Fishing Boat Operators
Ps. Vietnamese labors are permitted to be employed
in construction and fishing sectors through MOU only

18 January 2017 3
 3 Stages of development of labour migration policies (focuses on Unskilled)
1992
Stage 1
Illegal migrant worker registration
Acknowledging irregular migrants and piecemeal migration
management
MM workers only at first, then Cam and Laos,
specific areas, expensive and many restrictions and
Only irregular migrants who were already employed,
along with their children under age 15 years, were
eligible to register in Thailand.
No. of irregular migrants increased, registration
dropped, underground work flourished
only unilateral process, countries of origins
not involved
Allowed Laos, Cambodian, Myanmar
workers, entering country illegally and pending
for deportation, to be employed as labourers or
domestic servants.
Registration process provided migrant
workers with some documentation and health
insurance, it did not change their immigration
status
18 January 2017
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 present
Stage 2 Stage 3
Towards a migrant regularization policy
Implementations of regularization policy
MOUs Lao 2002, Cambodia 2003, Myanmar 2003
late 2008, the Government of Thailand announced
(2004) Led to (a) nationality verification (NV) of
plans to prioritize migrant regularization, particularly
registered (but illegal) workers already in
NV for documented migrants already working in TH
Thailand to enable them to acquire a legalized
status by means of temporary passports- registered
Since then a number of NV process extensions have
migrants needed to provide personal data to home
been in place in order to facilitate both employers and
countries for verification to receive a temporary
migrant workers. Terms and conditions of the extensions
passport or a certificate of identity, a visa to remain
vary..depending on adequacy
in Thailand for the specified amount of time and
renewable as many times as agreed by the
Stage 4
governments ; and (b) import of workers directly
from neighbouring countries with temporary Sticking to the regularization policy
passports.
The regularization policy is Intended only for Stage 5
adult workers only
Migration policy u-turns and progressive developments
(2004) First national registration process 2011 Registration re-opened for all migrant workers
initiated for 3 nationals still continue until
(a) and (b) are achieved from Laos, MM and Cam.
4
 4 Types of Migrants Who Are (Legally) Prohibited to Work in Thailand
Thailand has become a country of net immigration, currently a home of an
Foreign people entering into Thailand estimated 4 million legal, quasi-legal and irregular migrant workers
legally in compliance with the immigration
Source: Thailand Migration Report 2014
law. Divided into 4 categories:
o Lifetime Section 9
o General migrant workers with Passports
and Work Permits Applicable to employers seeking migrant
o Illegal migrants with national verification
Section 11 workers through MOU agreements
o Unskilled workers in accordance with MOUs Applicable only when workers are still
of Laos, Myanmar, Cambodian and outside of Thailand
Vietnamese workers

Foreign people having place Section 14 Working of Alien

of residence in neighboring
countries with common Act 2008
boundary with Thailand who
are permitted to work on a daily Section 12 Foreign people who are allowed to work under
or short-term or seasonal basis in Investment promotion or other related laws.
designated areas to promote
economic growth (2015) Section 13 Usually are skilled people

Foreign people who are not eligible

under Section 9 as they are not entitled
to Thai nationality due to Total of 1,510,740 people, excluding figures from One Stop Service
o The law of nationality As of November2015
(Tribal people etc) Source: Foreign Workers Administration Office
18 January 2017 5
 5 Numbers of Migrant Workers in Thailand
Numbers of Migrant Workers, Legal and Illegal, 2008-2015 Section 9 Section 12
general NV MOUs BOI
2008 43.03% 31.10% 7.47% 12.08%
2009 32.46% 36.97% 13.02% 10.71%
Majority of the legal migrant
2010 18.56% 60.18% 11.34% 6.12% workers are those who are
2011 10.89% 74.49% 10.67% 3.81%
in the country through the
2012 8.81% 78.00% 9.92% 3.17%
2013 8.47% 73.29% 15.06% 3.10% national verification process,
2014 7.67% 73.77% 15.66% 2.83% followed by those of MOUs
2015 7.36% 69.85% 19.72% 2.90%

General and BOI senior As aforementioned, only

officials, managers and
professionals and the majority
are of Japanese nationals,
followed by Chinese, Indian and
Philippines
Total number of Migrant Workers increases on an average of 16 percent
annually from 2008-2015 Illegal workers number drops due
to the national verification process
Note: Actual numbers of migrant workers cannot be precisely estimated as there are those who enter illegally
and those who have left the country but didnt report, those who have used different identities etc. Source: Foreign Workers Administration Office
18 January 2017
prohibited to do 2
occupations, 1) Labour work
and 2) Domestic work in 24
sectors such as retails,
construction, agriculture,
factory-based manufacturing,
service businesses etc.
6
 6 Recent Implementations of Policies/Measures Regarding Migrant Labour: Unskilled
Extension of Undocumented Migrant Workers
Legalisation (Lao, Vietnam, Cambodia) (Cabinet:
23/2/16) - Registration base (initiated firstly in 1992)
o Permitted to work in Thailand for up to 2 yrs for each
permit, and to have permit renewed max. 4 times (8
years in total)
o Undocumented migrant workers are allowed to go
through the process till 31 March 2018
Amendment of MOUs between Thai Government and the
Government of Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Vietnam on
Employment and Labor Cooperation to improve efficiency
and ease employment arrangement
Establishment of One Stop Service Centres in
provinces near the borders and those with SEZ,

Unskilled

Unskilled
aimed to help facilitate Nationality Verification process of
Administrative measures for effective
Laos, Cambodian, and Myanmar workers, as well as to
management of the documented migrant
facilitate migrant workers entering the country on
workers after legalisation process is
the daily basis
finished : Cabinet resolution on 25/10/16
endorsed the following: Establishment of Assistance Center for Migrant
o Measures on Permit Status Inspection Workers in provinces with relative high numbers of
o Migrant Worker Administration Strategies 2017-2021 migrant workers, such as, Chiang Mai, Chonburi, Tak
comprising of 5 key strategies etc. in order to provide assistance regarding consultation,
o Extension of registration period for another year for problem reports, labour protection etc.
Myanmar, Lao, and Cambodian migrant workers in marine Also, a Mobile Application has been launched in 6
fisheries and the seafood processing industry languages as an alternative channel for complains
lodging
18 January 2017 7
 7 Recent Implementations of Policies/Measures Regarding Migrant Labour: Skilled
Signing of Mutual Recognition Arrangements
(MRAs) in 8 occupations, aimed to facilitate
mobility of professionals/ skilled labor in ASEAN
Engineering, nurses, architects, surveyors,
accountants, dentists, doctors and tourism
professionals
Migration Policies: Challenges
Expensive fees of MOUs, complicated process
Confusions over registration and NV processes
Use of false information to obtain NV card
Confusion over the direction of low-skilled migration
policy resulted from the absence of a holistically
considered migration policy from a long-term economic
and social perspective
18 January 2017
Establishment of One Stop Service Center for Visa
and Work Permit for Skilled Workers by BOI,
Ministry of Labor and Ministry of Industry in
Bangkok, aimed to ease the application process of
Visa and Work Permit
Holistic migration policies - developed alongside
careful research and consideration of social and
economic development plans, demographic
realities, labour shortages and the wider global
market trends, and on a longer term perspective
with national security, economic imperatives and
human security equally prioritized.
8
 Thank you!

18 January 2017 9