Burden of Document Bondage: Reflections from Migrant Fishworkers in Thailand
In Brief:
The formalization of migrant workers promises to reduce unfair treatment and improve social welfare. But does it really? From Thailand’s migration regulations example, formalization has increasing migration costs, particularly through documentation, while creating more challenges than benefits. Documentation does not eliminate precariousness; it creates new forms of it.
Abandoned fishing boats at the port with a protest sign, signaling the decline of fishing and seafood industry in Songkla (picture by Alin Kadfak)
Being documented does not necessarily mean migrant workers receive full social benefits. Such statement continues to hold truth in the case of Thailand. Every two years or less, the Thai government issues new regulations requiring migrant workers to renew their work permits. According to the Cabinet Resolution on September 24, 2024, 2.3 million migrant workers from Laos, Myanmar, Cambodia, and Vietnam have only 40 days to register for work permit renewal.
By February 13, 2025, all migrant workers must renew their work permits or risk becoming undocumented. The registration process remains complex rather than being facilitated through a one-stop service system. Workers must visit multiple government offices, including hospitals, local Employment Departments, and Immigration Bureaus to submit paperwork, incurring additional travel costs on top of high documentation fees. We give a glimpse of struggles among migrant workers in the fisheries sector in southern Thailand, who have been preparing to enter another round of paperwork barricades and potential debt.
In the Thai fishing industry, fishermen and those in fisheries-related sectors must carefully manage living costs amid economic downturns and resource depletion in Thai waters. Our recent visit to a Thai fishing harbor revealed the persistent precarity faced by migrants in the industry. When we asked migrant workers what they would like to see from the Thai government, their response was unanimous: "Can you tell the government to reduce the cost of document renewal so we have enough money to send home?", an unexpected answer from the sector that just got out of the modern slavery scandal.
The cost of renewing work permits remains complex, leaving migrant workers in the dark. This is since the application process requires bureaucratic knowledge, time spent waiting at different government offices, and language barriers. The "black hole" of work permit applications is often filled by document brokers. While costly, document brokers are seen as necessary by many workers. They simplify the bureaucratic process and reduce the time spent dealing with various government offices. The brokers also have insider knowledge of new regulations and maintain strong connections with bureaucrats. Many migrants hesitate to change brokers out of fear that doing so might anger them, risking the loss of a crucial intermediary in the documentation process. This dynamic makes brokers indispensable within Thailand’s migrant worker communities.
Since Thailand’s fisheries reform, boat owners are required to hire only fully documented migrant fish workers. The high cost of documentation is often prepaid by boat owners and later deducted from workers’ wages. As a result, fish workers struggle to change employers due to document-related debt. While legally possible, the reality is far more difficult. Migrant workers fear losing credibility or being blacklisted by employers, which could force them to leave the province. Employers in the same region often share information about migrant workers, making mobility within the labor market even more challenging.
A fishing boat in operation, with migrant worker crews preparing for their next trip (picture by Tawanrat Marit)
Informal female workers working in post-harvesting are facing reduced work opportunities due to declining seafood landings. They earn approximately 3,000–7,000 THB per month for sorting, carrying or cutting fish at the harbor. However, the cost of extending their work permits is significantly higher—often reaching 17,000 THB or more, depending on the broker. This financial burden forces workers to sacrifice months of savings just to remain in Thailand legally.
The informal sector—such as fish sorting at markets—falls into regulatory gaps. In some cases, migrant workers introduce friends or relatives to employers for registration, appearing in the social security system without actually working for the registered employer. This means they do not receive social security or pension contributions despite being documented.
Social welfare in the fisheries sector is also gendered. Female workers are typically paid per hour or per kilogram of sorted fish, unlike male fish workers, who often receive fixed monthly salaries. Their employment conditions prevent them from contributing to the social security fund, which provides more benefits. Instead, they rely on the migrant health insurance scheme, which is a minimum requirement for registered migrant workers and offers comparatively limited social welfare coverage. One worker shared that her lowest monthly income was only 3,000 THB when no fishing boats arrived at the harbor.
Women in these communities also take on caregiving responsibilities within traditional family structures. One woman we interviewed said she switched to sorting fish because it allowed her to care for her newborn child. However, this flexibility comes at the cost of significantly lower wages. For children and young migrants, the only available option is the migrant health insurance scheme, and they must be registered under their parents. However, workers under the new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and border pass system are not allowed to bring their children to Thailand. As a result, dependent children of MOU/border pass workers cannot access healthcare because they are not legally registered.
Our focus on the bondage of the documentation process is to emphasise the unnecessary additional costs that migrants have to face, on top of high migration costs, which often include recruitment agency fees, broker fees, medical exam costs, travel and training costs, and not to mention bribes. In a recent ILO report, three out of five migrants working in the Thai fishing industry take loans from friends, moneylenders and employers to pay the migration costs.
Is it worth spending three to four months’ savings or getting a loan to apply for a two-year work permit? Or is it time for these migrants to return home and start a new chapter in their lives? Such challenges are not only applicable to fishing sector, but are shared across all sectors among MOU or non-MOU migrants. These are questions that the Thai government needs to find answers, in preparation for the coming declining workforce society. We suggest that the Thai government needs to take seriously the burden for the migrants who wish to stay in Thailand legally, and address this by reducing the cost of documentation, extending the period of work permit, making the renewal work permit application accessible through various languages, and seriously ensuring social security.
Note:
This article is a reflection from our fieldwork in January 2025
Authors Information:
Alin Kadfak is an associate researcher at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Her work focuses on labor precarity and resource governance in fisheries in Southeast Asia.
Tawanrat Marit is a research assistant at the JustSeafood.org project.
Cite this article: Kadfak, A., & Marit, T. (2025). Burden of Document Bondage: Reflections from Migrant Fishworkers in Thailand. JustSeafood.