Vietnam to send workers to Thailand from September under new agreement
Officials from the Thai Ministry of Labor said at the meeting that Vietnam can start sending the workers after Thai agencies discuss in detail next month labor demand, benefits for workers, labor export fee and working regulations.
Vietnamese workers would receive the same protection as locals, they said at the meeting, co-organized by the Thailand’s Department of Employment and the International Organization for Migration
Vietnamese labor officials have also demanded that their workers should get the same payment as locals of around US$500 a month in remote areas, $1,000 in developed areas, and more in big cities.
The labor pact, expected to be effective until the end of 2020, has been discussed since early last year, when figures from Thailand showed that 50,000 to 100,000 Vietnamese, most of them from the impoverished central region, were already working in Thailand illegally.
Head of Thailand’s Department of Employment Arug Phrommanee talks with reporters on the sideline of a meeting in Bangkok on June 27, 2016. Photo: Lam Yen/Thanh Nien.
They paid agents to help them enter the country as tourists but then get jobs, mostly in construction, fishing and households.
The Thai government encouraged illegal workers to register with the authorities to get a one-year work permit.
With the signing of the agreement, Thailand is expected to be tougher with illegal workers.
