Myanmar workers are being sent to factories and agricultural farms in Laos through a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) system, with the first group departing from Yangon International Airport, according to sources from the Overseas Employment Agency.
Since the beginning of November, Myanmar employment agencies have begun sending workers to Laos under the MOU system. Around 500 workers have already left for Laos, and on November 12, approximately 50 workers were sent to garment factories in Laos. The workers are expected to engage in various sectors, including garment manufacturing, agricultural labor, and other industrial production, particularly in factories with Chinese investments.
According to a spokesperson from the overseas employment agency, “While the agency service fee is zero-cost, some agencies charge around 10 million kyats as a service fee. The workers are being sent primarily for agricultural work, garment factories, wood-processing factories, and other manufacturing plants. These factories include those with Chinese investments. The salaries for these positions, paid in Myanmar kyats, are typically over 1 million kyats per month.”
This initiative follows an MOU agreement signed between Myanmar’s Minister of Labor Myint Naung and Laos’ Minister of Labor Mrs. Baykham Khattiya on October 21. This MOU paved the way for the official sending of Myanmar workers to Laos starting in early November.
Previously, many Myanmar workers were already crossing the Mekong River at the Myanmar-Laos border to find work in Laos, with numbers reportedly in the tens of thousands. However, this is the first official movement of workers under the MOU system. The low agency fees and the high demand for jobs are expected to send thousands of Myanmar workers to Laos in the coming months.
“There are many women among those going to Laos. They are already being sent now, and by the end of the year, we expect over a thousand Myanmar workers to have gone to Laos,” the agency spokesperson added.
In Laos, a country in the ASEAN region, there are approximately 54,000 foreign workers in 2023, with 24,000working illegally. Due to low wages, many Laos nationals are working in other countries, leading to a shortage of domestic labor. The Laos government has taken steps to address this by issuing work visas for foreign workers in April this year and simplifying the work permit process for legal foreign workers.
The Laos government has also introduced new measures to facilitate the legal employment of foreign workers, aiming to ease the process for both workers and employers.
Photo – Minister of Labor Myint Naung meeting Myanmar female workers in Laos last month.
Source: Khit Thit Media
