BANGKOK — Burmese Home Minister Maung Oo told Burmese migrant workers in Thailand today that they should register under the Nationality Verification program and apply for temporary passports so they can remain in the country legally.

Speaking in Mahachai, home to the largest Burmese migrant community in Thailand, Maung Oo said the Nationality Verification program, set up under an agreement between the Thai and Burmese governments, was safe.

Many Burmese migrant workers have expressed concern about providing personal information to the Burmese authorities as part of the registration process.

These concerns are unfounded, said Maung Oo, who also met with the Thai labor minister and other Labor Ministry officials, according to sources.

Sein Htay, a Burmese migrant worker living in Mahachai, said that Maung Oo visited the area, near the Thai capital Bangkok, around 9 am. While there, he urged migrants to register in Kawthaung, near the Thai border town of Ranong, by April.

Maung Oo said that Burma will expand the registration program so that up to 1,000 people can register per day at each of three registration centers on the Thai-Burmese border—Myawaddy, Tachilek and Kawthaung.

Andy Hall, director of the Migrant Justice Program for the Bangkok-based Human Rights and Development Foundation, said: “If it is true that [Maung Oo] visited to assure migrant workers that Nationality Verification is safe, this is not the way ahead. 

“Many migrant workers fear and distrust the Burmese government. This may only scare them more,” said Hall.