Samut Sakhon migrant registration centre to reopen as labour shortage bites
The Cabinet has agreed to resume temporary registration of Myanmar migrant workers in Samut Sakhon province, as Thailand seeks to plug a labour shortage of about 800,000 workers.
Myanmar authorities will be permitted to register migrants with identity documents so they do not have to return to their homeland, said government spokesperson Traisulee Traisoranakul.
Myanmar workers are crucial to the economy of Samut Sakhon, staffing its huge seafood production industry.
Samut Sakhon’s Communicable Disease Committee will determine the start date and guidelines for Myanmar’s temporary data collection centre (TDCC), added the spokesman.
A December 2020 outbreak of Covid-19 among local and migrant workers in Samut Sakhon triggered Thailand’s second wave of the pandemic.
The TDCC was closed in July last year, prompting the Myanmar embassy to request an extension of its operations.
According to the Federation of Thai Industries, the country urgently needs 800,000 migrant workers to serve manufacturing, tourism and service sectors that have been hit by labour shortages.
