More than 200,000 migrant workers return home for Songkran celebrations

BANGKOK, April 19 (TNA) - The Ministry of Labour reports that more than 200,000 legal migrant workers in Thailand returned home for celebrating the Songkran Festival 2019 with their families. Petcharat Sinauy, Director-General of the ministry's Department of Employment, told journalists on April 18 that out of a total of 242,870 legal migrant workers from neighboring Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar who returned to their home countries for a reunion and celebrations of this year's Songkran Festival with their families during April 5-16, 46,754 of them have already come back to work in Thailand. Petcharat stated that the Thai Cabinet earlier resolved to allow legal migrant workers from the three neighboring countries and their dependents, aged not older than 18 years, who hold official passports and other documents approved by the Thai government to return to their home countries for their Songkran festivity during April 5-30 with a free re-entry fee of 1,000 baht each. "Based on the Cabinet's resolution, legal migrant workers from Cambodia, Lao PDR and Myanmar can re-enter to Thailand to work with their employers without any fee until April 30, but they need to apply for their new visa and pay the 2,000-baht re-entry fee each if they return to work in Thailand during May 1-31 for their remaining contracted employment periods individually and they will not be allowed to re-enter to Thailand to work for their remaining contracted employment periods thereafter but they are legally required to then re-apply to work in the Thai Kingdom based on conditions indicated in the labor memorandum of understanding (MOU) signed between their governments and the Thai government", the senior Thai official explained. According to the senior official, the legal migrant workers from the three neighboring countries have mostly worked in Thailand as laborers, domestic helpers, interpreters and mechanics aboard fishing boats. The senior official acknowledged that most of the legal migrant workers in Thailand who asked to return to their home countries during this year's Songkran Festival are Myanmar nationals at almost 140,000, followed by Lao and Cambodian nationals at over 52,000 and over 50,000 respectively, with over 34,000, over 6,100 and over 6,500 of the legal Myanmar, Lao and Cambodian migrant workers having already re-entered to the Thai Kingdom to continue working with their employers. (TNA)