The meeting between Thailand and Myanmar was held in Phuket yesterday (June 22) – at Patong Resort Hotel, near Bangla Rd and the Jungceylong shopping mall – to ensure good relations and to discuss issues to be resolved, reported the Phuket office of the Public Relations Department.
Officially, it was the 31st meeting of the Thai Myanmar Regional Border Committee (RBC).
Present for Thailand was Lt Gen Wichak Siribansop, Commander of the Royal Thai Army Region 3 division, which is based in Phitsanuloke and responsible for the northern and northwestern parts of Thailand.
Present for Myanmar was Lt Gen Min Naung, 4th Special Operations Bureau Commander.
“Thailand and Myanmar are in good relations. We have cooperated on border problems and improved people’s lives along the border,” said Lt Gen Wichak.
“We have good relationship on economic, public health and environmental issues. We have cooperated to prevent disasters, narcotics and rebellion. We have solved the illegal alien and human-trafficking problem,” he announced.
“Thailand and Myanmar have had very good relations in the past. Our good relations will continue into the future. This meeting is to focus on the cooperation and ensure our relations. We objectives are for the benefit of the armies and the people of the two countries,” Gen Wichak added.
Lt Gen Min Naung thanked his host.
“Thank you to the Thai Amy for holding this meeting. We are very glad that our relations are stronger,” he said.
“At the previous RBC meeting, the 30th meeting held in Myanmar on June 20-22 last year, we had not completed our discussions. If there are any other issues that we have to discuss, please let us know so we can find a way to solve the problem,” he said.
Earlier this month Phuket Vice Governor Siwaporn Chuasawad urged an estimated 50,000 migrant workers in Phuket, many of whom originate from Myanmar, to register for the new "e-work permit" system. (See story here.)
Although that estimate noted that Phuket is now home to more than 50,000 migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, an estimated 200,000 undocumented migrant workers live in Phuket, according to local NGOs.
Such undocumented workers fall into different categories such as stateless, illegal migrant and non-Thais who are in a nationality verification process, the Bangkok Post’s Spectrum magazine reported in February. (See story here.)
That figure has been openly accepted by the officials as conferred by the National Statistics Office after conducting two census surveys.
Further, in the third quarter of 2016, 6.36% of employees in Thailand were migrant workers from three countries; Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.