For the first time since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, Thailand will reopen its borders to migrant workers, especially from Laos, who are now granted permission to return to Thailand with the approval of their employers next week after a hiatus due to Covid-19. Reports say many people continue to cross the border illegally in search of jobs that pay better than what they can earn in their homeland.
The Laos Ministry of Labor and Social Services stated that traffickers and employers from Thailand sometimes helped the migrants flee from authorities as pre-employment approvals and expensive fees led many of them to try to enter the kingdom illegally.
An official told Benar News in anonymity that Thai employers occasionally call former workers and ask them to return to the kingdom, adding that brokers or middlemen are sometimes recruited to transport the workers to…
