Informal migration for labor

Over 100 Cambodian vendors attacked and besieged some 10 Department of Special Investigation officials and representatives of major brands at Thailand’s Rongklua Market in Sakaew on 3 February, injuring several officials. The DSI officials tried to arrest a Cambodian female vendor for allegedly selling imitated goods at ...

Thailand’s Department of Employment is aiming to tackle the growing problem of Thais travelling abroad to work illegally, especially in South Korea. Arak Phrommanee, the department’s director-general, said there had been an increasing incidence of Thais travelling to South Korea as tourists and then picking up jobs without ...

Thousands of Myanmar migrant workers are spending months or even years in detention camps in Malaysia waiting for the government to confirm their citizenship status, migrant rights groups say. The delay has caused a backlog in the 11 detention camps throughout Malaysia, recently returned workers say. ...

Overseas employment agencies, angry at “bullying” from the Malaysian government, have resolved to boycott the country. Agency chiefs say they will no longer send Myanmar migrant workers to Malaysia, as the recruitment industry has been monopolised by a newly instituted system that has changed the ...

A tenfold increase in visa fees has prompted employment agencies to consider boycotting Malaysia, long a favoured destination of Myanmar migrant workers. The threat, which could be backed up by demonstrations, followed an announcement by the Malaysian embassy to raise visa application costs from US$6 ...

More than 50 Vietnamese immigrants have been detained by Cambodia’s Interior Ministry’s immigration police following two recent raids, bringing the total number of people awaiting deportation for being in the country illegally to 73, according to an official. Keep reading ...

A bilateral Thai-Myanmar meeting to resolve issues relating to migrant workers in Thailand has ended inconclusively, as the Thai negotiators have referred all matters under discussion to Bangkok for a decision. The 8 and 9 January meeting in Yangon discussed the status of the 3 million ...

A migrant workers’ activist has called for greater support from the Myanmar government for workers overseas who, he said, faced “oppression” from foreign governments. The call came as Malaysian police arrested Myanmar demonstrators outside the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur on 7 January. The demonstrators were ...

Labour ministry officials from Thailand are due to resume talks on 8 January in Yangon with their Myanmar counterparts on the status of up to 3 million Myanmar migrant workers in the kingdom. If successful, the negotiations could lead to an agreement that would legalise the workers’ ...

Cambodian recruitment agencies are drawing up more extensive training programs for maids being sent to Malaysia following a lifting of a ban on the practice in December. However, it remains unclear by what standards the programs created by the agencies – many of which have been ...