The tragic deaths last week of 54 Burmese workers who suffocated in a cold storage container packed with 121 victims of human trafficking would most likely have been avoided if Thailand had a more lenient and practical policy towards registration of migrant workers from Laos, Cambodia and Burma.

Even though there are at present nearly one million registered migrant workers from these three countries, they are vastly outnumbered by undocumented (i.e. "illegal") workers.

High work permit fees combined with limited time periods for registration discourage employers from legally registering their employees.

Migrant workers are very badly regarded and very badly treated by Thai society; yet it is hard to imagine how our economy would survive without them. Major industries like fishing, agriculture, construction and even manufacturing and services are heavily dependent on their labour.

Upper and middle-class families frantically seek migrant workers as household employees.

There really doesn't seem to be any reliable published research data on the true contribution of migrant labour to the Thai economy.

Is this because such information might be too unacceptable for us to want to find out?

What would be wrong if we opened up our borders to migrant workers from neighbouring countries with very few restrictions? I wish this question were given fair consideration.

Already we are not doing a very good job at preventing unregistered migrant workers without work permits from entering Thailand and getting employment. As long as jobs are available, why don't we allow them to come?

So far there seems to be no indication that migrant workers are causing unemployment among Thai workers, as they are not generally competing for the same jobs. Maybe they are even helping to prevent unemployment among Thais by contributing to the expansion of the economy.

In my view, all potential migrant workers crossing into Thailand should be allowed to register and be given identity cards as long as they pass health checks. Registration would be year-round (unlike at present) and not dependent upon employment. The registration fee should be affordable and paid for by the workers themselves, not their employers.

Registered workers would then be required to report to authorities at certain intervals so that records on their whereabouts and their employment could be maintained. They would be free to change employment and their employers would be strictly prohibited from taking possession of their registration papers or identity cards.

Migrant workers and their employers should be required to join the social insurance programme like their Thai counterparts. Their contributions would then cover health insurance and other benefits. The workers should also be allowed to establish their own trade unions or to join existing Thai trade unions.

To prevent competition for jobs with Thai workers, upgrading of skills among Thai workers should be maintained as a priority national policy for the development of the Thai economy.

I believe that everyone would gain from a more enlightened policy on migrant workers. The workers themselves would have better working conditions and be less liable to exploitation as they would have legal status and be free to change employment. Employers would no longer face the risks and penalties of employing undocumented workers. The authorities would have much better records on the numbers, whereabouts and employment of migrant workers.

The only real losers would seem to be the human-trafficking mafia and the officials who at present benefit financially from blackmailing illegal migrant workers.

Unfortunately, within Thai society there are some widespread prejudices against migrant workers that make it difficult to reform our policies towards them. One common prejudice is the belief that migrant workers are more liable to resort to crime, such as killing or robbing their employers. Some prominent news stories have fuelled this prejudice.

As long as migrant workers are documented, treated with dignity and allowed reasonable wages and working conditions, there would seem to be no reason why they should be any more prone to crime than their Thai counterparts.

The other main objection to an open border policy towards migrant workers is the catch-all excuse about "national security", which can generally be used to oppose many different kinds of proposed reforms.

Those who raise this objection should explain how it is better for national security for around two million migrant workers to be undocumented rather than legally registered and accounted for?

An open border policy towards migrant workers would mainly be beneficial to all concerned, don't you agree?

Jon Ungphakorn is a former elected senator for Bangkok and a Thai NGO activist. Comments are welcome at: [email protected]