Labour Migration in Thailand

The views expressed in this presentation are the views of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views or
policies of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Asian Development Bank (ADB), its Board of
Directors, or the governments they represent. ADBI does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this
paper and accepts no responsibility for any consequences of their use. Terminology used may not necessarily
be consistent with ADB official terms.

Jinanggoon Rojananan and Nakaprapa Bamrungsuk

29 January 2015

MIGRANT WORKERS IN THAILAND (2010-2014)

Total
Legal entry
Total legal entry
Permanent
Temporary (general)
By MOU scheme
By national
verification
Under BOI promotion
Illegal entry
Total illegal entry
Minorities
From Myanmar,
Cambodia, and Lao
PDR (Cabinet resolution

2010
2011
2012
1,335,155 1,950,650 1,133,851

2013
1,198,495

2014
1,339,834

379,560
14,423
70,449
43,032
228,411

678,235
983
73,841
72,358
505,238

940,531
983
82,833
93,265
733,603

1,170,486
983
108,002
174,042
847,130

1,329,429
983
100,943
206,168
971,461

23,245

25,817

29,847

40,329

37,287

955,595
23,340
932,255

1,272,415
24,351
1,248,064

193,320
25,439
167,881

28,009
28,009
-

22,992
22,992
-

Source: Registration and Information Division, Office of Foreign Workers Administration, Department of Employment, Ministry of Labour
MOUs with the Government of the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic in October 200, MOUs with Cambodia in May 2003 and with
Myanmar in June 2003 to establish bilateral frameworks for recruitment and employment
A nationality verification procedure was launched in 2010.
Illegal entry registered on 31 October 2014 with the numbers of 1,626,235 workers and 92,560 dependents which currently is on the
national verification process.
2

11th NESDP
(2012-2016)

Government
Policy

Improve foreign workers management in a systematic

manner that includes registering unskilled workers,
improving labour data base system, providing incentives
to attract professional and high skilled workers, and
provision of social services in an appropriate and
equitable manner.

Prevent and solve the problem of human trafficking,

migrants entering the country illegally ...
Develop special economic zone

MEASURES AND TOOLS ON THE PROTECTION OF MIGRANT WORKER

NCPO

Establish a new Committee on Migrant Workers and

Trafficking
Establish One Stop Service Centers (OSSCs) in all provinces
- to conduct registration of migrant workers
- to issue a temporary work permit for migrant workers
(The Ministry of Interior is the main responsible body, and
work in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour, the
Ministry of Health, the Immigration Bureau and other
relevant entities)
Establish special economic zones (encourage investment
from local and overseas investors in order to create jobs,
reduce income gap and create economic growth for
neighboring countries in the long term, therefore migrant
workers would not need to travel far from their homes to
find jobs)

MEASURES AND TOOLS ON THE PROTECTION OF MIGRANT WORKER

The Ministry of Labour issued the Ministerial Announcement

on the labour protection in fishery industry which applied to
all fishing vessels such as minimum age requirements (18
years+, working and rest hours, etc. (effective 31 December
2014)

The Ministry of Labour issued the Ministerial Announcement

on the labour protection in agricultural industry such as
minimum age requirements (15 years+, working and rest
hours, etc. (effective 22 December 2014)

Fishery
Industry

Agricultural
Industry

MEASURES AND TOOLS ON THE PROTECTION OF MIGRANT WORKER

Access to
Education

Access to
Health Care

Access to
Skill
Development

Cabinet approved an Education for All initiative of July 5,

2005, opening up schooling at all level to children of
residents, whatever their nationality status, and providing
per capita financial support on the same basis as for Thai
children, including those that do not have proper
identification documents.

Migrants under the MOU scheme and those who have

completed nationality verification enter the social security
scheme
Migrants undergoing nationality verification have to buy
insurance coverage
To date, there has been no government-sponsored skills
development programme for migrant workers.
The Skills Development Department is collaborating with
the ADB to develop one under the GMS.

Number of Thai migrant workers in foreign countries

and remittances in 2001-2014
120,000
100,000

98,774

98,552

103,565
95,897

99,986
93,600

91,921
84,074

80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
-

66,297
55,606

59,251

78,717

65,124

63,111
53,985

56,273

79,792

90,237
85,837

88,162

88,044

79,628

78,105

90,276

68,802
57,326

55,150

47,667

No.of labor (prs.)

Remittance (mill. Baht)
2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014

Sources : Ministry of Labor ; Bank of Thailand

Thai workers overseas work in relatively low-skilled occupations, less than half of the workers deployed were considered
skilled workers.
Taipei,China; Republic of Korea; Israel; Japan; Sweden ;and Finland are major destinations consequently.

MEASURE AND TOOL

ON THE PROTECTION OF THAI NATIONAL MIGRATION ABROAD

Labour
Protection

The Recruitment and Job Seekers Protection Act, B.E.

2528(1985), amended in 1994, covers recruitment for both local
and overseas employment which its main purpose is to regulate
recruitment so as to prevent the cheating or exploitation of
prospective migrants and to reduce illegal migration.
Overseas Workers Welfare Fund is used for
- arranging for abandoned job seekers to be repatriated to
Thailand,
- providing aid to workers overseas or those planning to go
overseas
- implementing the selection process, skill testing and predeparture orientation.