More Cambodians expected to come to Thailand following passport fee cut

SA KAEO, Thailand, June 22 (TNA) - More Cambodian workers are expected to return and work in Thailand after the Cambodian government has slashed the passport fee to four U.S. dollars from between 135-250 U.S. dollars earlier, said a senior immigration police officer. Police Colonel Benjapol Rodsawat, deputy immigration chief of Sa Kaeo province, said the passport fee cut in Cambodia is considered “positive” move as it would help poor Cambodians apply for a passport and it could eliminate the problem of illegal Cambodian workers entering Thailand. Police Colonel Benjapol said he was told by Cambodian officials that Cambodians who have applied for jobs through legal job placement agencies would be entitled to enjoy the low passport application fee. He said Thai authorities would have to monitor on how the Cambodian government would issue passports to its people and how the people enter Thailand and work here as the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is trying to legalise migrant workers in this country. More than 100,000 Cambodian and Vietnamese migrant workers have left Thailand for their countries in the past few weeks on rumours that NCPO would punish the migrants who are working in Thailand illegally. (TNA)