Arrests of illegals worry factory owners

Arrests of illegals worry factory owners

BANGKOK (DPA): Factory owners in northern Thailand near the Myanmar border have warned that they may be forced to close if immigration officers continue to arrest unregistered Burmese workers, the Bangkok Post reported yesterday.

Immigration authorities have been cracking down on unregistered foreign laborers since Nov. 29, the deadline to register to work under a cabinet resolution passed last June.

The resolution allows alien laborers to register for work in five sectors suffering a shortage of unskilled labor: construction, fisheries, agriculture, transportation and industry.

Factory work, however, is not one of the sectors covered in the resolution, so about 15,000 Burmese laborers did not register in the northern province of Tak.