THE Philippines will not be directly affected by Thailand’s stricter labor laws which led thousands of illegal foreign workers fleeing from Bangkok immediately after its implementation, a senior Filipino official said Friday.
In an interview, Department of Foreign Affairs on Migrant Workers Affairs executive director Raul Dado said most Filipinos working in Thailand have visas.
“Still my team is analyzing current news reports and that there’s a certain population they’re targeting, mostly Cambodia and Myanmar; these have illegals while the Philippines has mostly legal OFWs in Thailand,” Dado noted.
So far, there are tens of thousands of migrant workers, most of them from Myanmar, who escaped from
Thailand for fear of arrest after authorities adopted the new labor rules.
Dado said there were only 1,625 undocumented Filipino workers who may be affected by this new law.
So far, there are 16,704 Filipinos who are working and residing there, out of whom 14,981 are temporary migrants and 98 permanent migrants.