Workers to get Thai legal permits
In coordination with Thai officials, Cambodia’s Labor Ministry has set up a new process to help migrant workers in Thailand receive passports, travel cards or Overseas Cambodian Worker Cards. For many Cambodians it will end a gray area in which they have been issued with what are known as pink cards by the Thais. These give them migrant worker status, but are not enough to allow the workers to get a job. The problem arose after Thailand’s military seized power in 2014 and expelled large numbers of foreign workers. Many Cambodians subsequently crossed back into Thailand illegally. Thai authorities created the pink cards as a way of normalizing their presence, however the workers were left in employment limbo. Cambodian and Thai government officials met to resolve the problem and a Cambodian government committee was set up to legalize the 231,626 undocumented Cambodian workers.
