The majority of Myanmar migratory workers were destined to Malaysia with about 300 heading for the Southeast Asian member nation per day for a recent period, said Tuesday's weekly the Flower News pre-published on Monday.

Quoting some agents undertaking overseas employment services, the report said these Myanmar migratory workers are working in factories, restaurants and construction projects in Malaysia enjoying a basic pay set by the Malaysian government.

According to the agents, along with Malaysia, Qatar also stands a destination for the agents to send Myanmar migratory workers nowadays.

Overseas employment statistics show that Myanmar migratory workers mostly sought overseas jobs in Singapore during the period between 1996 and 2001 and the number working in the country reduced starting 2001 with Malaysia becoming the market for overseas employment.

According to Malaysian official sources, which the report quoted, Myanmar migratory workers accounted for the majority out of 1.84 million overseas workers working in Malaysia.

In 2005, Myanmar allowed for the first time overseas job seekers to work in Qatar in the Middle East, a region once the country considered too dangerous and too susceptible to unrest for Myanmar workers.

More than 500 Myanmar workers were expected to initially arrive in Qatar annually since then where demand for labor is high, overseas employment agencies said.

The government's opening up of the overseas job opportunity to work in Qatar came after the launching in January this year of the direct flight to Yangon by the Qatar Airways, the region's airline.

In the past few decades, Myanmar has been encouraging its people to work overseas as part of its bid to ease domestic employment problem, and thousands of Myanmar job seekers worked in Asian countries with the majority in Malaysia, followed by in South Korea, Singapore and Japan.

Meanwhile, Myanmar seafarers working in overseas shipping lines have increased in recent years. According to official statistics, of the 60,000 registered seafarers in Myanmar, over 12,000 work in overseas shipping lines, up from only 9,000 in 1996.

Meanwhile, under a recent agreement out of coordination between the Myanmar Foreign Ministry and the Thai Labor Ministry recently, Thailand offered to grant 10,000 Myanmar workers to work in industries, factories and restaurants in Thailand. In this regard, the Myanmar authorities have opened temporary passport issuing offices in three border towns of Myawaddy, Kawthoung and Tachilek linking Thailand to facilitate Myanmar workers to work in that country crossing border.

According to Thai statistics, there are 500,000 to 600,000 Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand accounting for 80 percent of the total.

Source: Xinhua