TDRI director Yongyuth Chalamwong said the country needed 500,000 to 700,000 immigrant workers in the fields of agriculture, livestock farming, fishery, fishery-related activities and construction. Under current regulations, the employment quota for immigrant workers in these fields is based on the ratio of one for every five Thai workers.

The employment of immigrant workers, he said, should be free from discrimination; done under transparent laws and regulations; in cooperation with their home countries; and with clear guidelines for their development - including the right to obtain education and training for themselves and accompanying family members.

Samarn Laodamrongchai, from Chulalongkorn University's Institute of Asian Studies said current regulations were not thorough and kept changing according to who was in power. Some rules were even issued to benefit some authority figures, he alleged.

Krittiya Achavanichkul of Mahidol University's Institute for Population and Social Research pointed out that some state policies, educational curricula and media reports were partly responsible for the bias against immigrant workers.

She suggested that the handling of immigrant-labour issues should be done by experts rather than civil servants, citing the failure by past governments to address problems and the lack of one common standard to be applied by relevant officials.

Damrongpan Jaihao

The Nation