Although Thai authorities expect to complete identification processing of migrant workers from Lao and Cambodia this year, they say procedural problems with Burma’s government are holding up progress in registering Burmese migrants.

The Burmese government wants Thai employers to take their migrant workers to processing points within Burma, a procedure that Thai authorities say is difficult and time-consuming.

The director-general of Thailand’s Department of Employment, Manoon Punyakriyakorn, said the Thai foreign minister would discuss the issue during a visit to Burma next month.

About 500,000 Burmese workers are currently registered in Thailand, while an unknown number are employed without proper papers, mainly in construction, fisheries and garment factories. Manoon said about 50,000 workers from Lao and 40,000 from Cambodia were currently in Thailand.

Migrant workers from Burma registered since 2005 have not been not allowed to be accompanied by their families and dependents, Manoon said-a decree condemned as “impractical” by Pranom Somwong, of the Chiang Mai-based Migrant Assistant Program. She said many of the migrants had been forced to flee Burma with their families because of the fighting there or the threat of starvation.

Confusion surrounds the regulations governing the recognition of migrant workers, however, following a recent Thai Ministry of Interior project allowing migrant children to be registered in public schools. Pranom accused the Thai government of adopting an ‘instability policy,’ reflecting the inability of the authorities to manage migration from neighboring countries properly.