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.