MAHACHAI, Thailand—A dozen migrant workers sit around chatting openly in Burmese outside the National Verification (NV) office in Mahachai near Bangkok. Others queue inside for the migrants' version of a passport––a travel document recognized by the Thai authorities. The NV office is located near the port in Mahachai in Samut Sakorn Province, which is home to the largest per capita population of Burmese migrants in Thailand, estimated to be about 200,000 of the two to three million Burmese in the country. Most migrants in Mahachai work in the fisheries depots at the port.
The registration process supposedly offers the migrants the opportunity to travel in Thailand without fear of deportation. The document also serves the purpose of acting as a first step toward obtaining a work permit for Thailand's migrants, the majority of whom are Burmese, but also include thousands of Laotians, Cambodians.Ko Tu, a Burmese migrant in Mahachai who works with the Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF), a labor rights group that assists Burmese migrant workers in Thailand, said the area around the NV office has recently become somewhat of a community center for Burmese workers.
He said the migrant workers are now more confident about registering for documents at the NV office, whereas previously they had been nervous about payments, arrest and deportation.
Ko Tu said the HRDF helps to educate the migrants about the NV process and to convince them that it is safe.
Ko Zaw, a Burmese migrant worker who works in a seafood factory in Mahachai, said that Burmese Home Minister Maung Oo had visited his factory on Saturday and encouraged him and other Burmese workers to apply for migrant passports.
Speaking with The Irrawaddy, Ko Zaw said, “Maung Oo asked why hadn't we applied for passports. 'Go and apply,” he said. 'It is safe and you won't be arrested or charged tax on your income.'”
“He [Maung Oo] also said that if we were threatened or asked for tax, we should let the authorities know and they would take action,” he added.
Maung Oo reportedly also told migrants that the Burmese authorities will soon open one more NV center in Three Pagodas Pass on the Thai-Burmese border.
There are currently three registration centers on the Thai-Burmese border––at Kawthaung, Myawaddy and Tachilek.
Maung Oo also said that the Burmese authorities will extend the NV process so that 1,000 people a day can register at each center, said migrants in Mahachai.
March 2 is the deadline for the NV registration, but some rights groups have said the deadline has been unofficially extended to the end of March.
Ko Tu said that some Burmese migrant workers are still nervous about registering. “They have very negative views about the NV process,” he said.
He said that migrant workers have benefits if they hold an NV “passport”––such as being able to buy a motorbike or a car, traveling around Thailand without having to bribe their way through checkpoints and living without the constant fear of arrest by the Thai police.
Many migrant workers have claimed that their Thai employers refuse to be involved in the NV registration process, in which case they have to pay a large fee to agents.
Ko Zaw said that each migrant must pay about 8,000 baht (US $265) through an agent when they apply at the NV office in Mahachai, but only 3,000 baht ($100) if they apply through their employer.
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