As reported in The Myanmar Times, new migrations efforts are underway to start a nationality-verification process, designed to regularise the status of over half a million workers caught in immigration limbo.

The plan involves sending teams across Thailand to conduct a mass survey to establish the passport eligibility of over 660,000 Myanmar workers and their dependants who hold temporary Thai residency cards, known informally as a “pink cards”.

However, problems are already surfacing. Only a fraction will be eligible to apply for a passport as they also need to possess a Myanmar national ID and household registration list. Many from ethnic minority groups or those who fled conflict don’t have such documentation. Or, if they do, there are mismatches such as name misspellings or incorrect addresses, these errors having been introduced by employers or brokers.

Read the full article at The Myanmar Times.