Population and censuses
Population
IOM, Italy join hands to fight human trafficking
The International Organisation for Migration and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare will cooperate in the war on human trafficking in Laos after signing a project agreement in Vientiane on 18 July between the IOM Head of Office Mr Damien Kilner and the ministry’s Director General ...
Migrants’ hopes and fears in Little Myanmar
Thai employers are reluctant to attract media coverage focusing on the region’s docks, markets or construction sites; workers told The Irrawaddy that if they were discovered as having contributed to a story on Little Myanmar, they feared they would be later fired. Wandering through Samut ...
Lao workers returning home to work in SEZs
Speaking to Vientiane Times on 13 July, Chairman of the Champassak Provincial SEZ Authority Mr Khamphon Nuansengsy said that his authority conducted a survey recently and found that many more Lao people wanted to return to work in their hometown as long as jobs were available. In the ...
Govt to release census data on religion
Data from Myanmar’s 2014 census on the populations of the country’s religious groups will be released this month, a ministry spokesperson has announced. Myint Kyaing, the permanent secretary within the Ministry of Labor, Immigration and Population, told The Irrawaddy on 12 July that the religious data will ...
Laos, Thailand intensify economic ties, amend MoU on labour cooperation
Laos and Thailand have highlighted areas in which they will intensify economic cooperation and signed an amended Memorandum of Understanding on labour cooperation, Thai media reported on 6 July. The agreement was reached on 6 July by the two governments as Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith led a ...
EU funds asylum-seeking scheme in Thailand
The UN Refugee Agency has received 300,000 euros from the European Commission’s Humanitarian Aid and Civil Protection department to support the refugee status determination process for asylum-seekers in Thailand. There are currently more than 2,000 refugees and more than 6,000 asylum-seekers from nearly 50 countries living ...
ILO to research migrant workers’ challenges, assets
The International Labour Organization will conduct research into the experiences that Myanmar migrant workers have faced abroad and how the country benefits after they return home, according to the UN agency. The research will start next month in locations that send the most labourers abroad – ...
Thai officials, Myanmar migrant workers fired after Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s state visit
The Thai government has sacked six officials in the town that State Counsellor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited last week. On the day Daw Aung San Suu Kyi visited Mahachai’s seafood market, Myanmar migrant workers accused local authorities of manipulating the arrangement so that only ...
PM to discuss return of refugees with Suu Kyi
The repatriation of more than 100,000 Myanmar refugees, who have been sheltered in nine camps in four border provinces from Mae Hong Son in the North to Ratchaburi province for decades, will be discussed when Aung San Suu Kyi meets Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on ...
Myanmar will be ready to take back refugees soon, source claims
Myanmar will soon be ready to take back over 100,000 refugees from nine shelters in Thailand, as the country moves towards democracy, an informed source claimed on 20 June. Details were revealed during the launch of a “World Refugee Day” event at Ban Umpiem Mai shelter ...