The work permits of some 60,000 Cambodian, Laotian and Myanmar migrants will expire on January 20. They face a complicated, expensive and uncertain new process that gives no guarantees their permits will be renewed.

“For the first time since their entry into Thailand, migrants must now go through a … process to confirm their nationality in order to remain in Thailand after their existing work permits expire in 2010,” the groups wrote in an open letter to Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva.

“Almost all of the 61,543 migrants whose permission to stay in Thailand ends on Jan. 20, 2010″ come from Myanmar, the letter says.

There are more than 2 million migrants living and working in Thailand, with 90 percent coming from Myanmar and others from Cambodia and Laos.

The Thai government has set a February 28 deadline for migrants to complete the nationality verification process, the letter notes, saying that fewer than 10,000 have completed the process.

The letter wants the government to make clear its policy on the first group of 61,543 as well as a further “1.4 million migrants whose work permits will expire on February 28, 2010.” It demands clarification as to whether the government intends only to allow those migrants who take part in the NV status to stay in the country.

“NV is too expensive for most migrants and brokers remain unregulated,” the letter says. Migrants “have understandable fears for their and their family’s safety as they must provide personal information to complete NV.”

Among the groups that signed the open letter on Jan. 18 are Christian Conference of Asia, Human Rights and Development Foundation (Thailand), Human Rights Watch (New York), and the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) .

They fear that some of the migrant workers whose permits expire on Jan. 20, 2010 will simply be deported. The Thai army forcibly deported more than 4,000 ethnic Hmong asylum-seekers in the north of Thailand in December.