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Garment factory workers

Thai officials say there are currently over 90,000 registered laborers from Laos working legally in Thailand, of which about 40,000 have had their nationality verified by the Lao government. They have requested Lao authorities to speed up and finish the nationality verification of the rest by the end of 2007, in an effort to solve the problem of illegal workers from Laos.

Thai authorities say registered workers who have had their nationality verified by Lao officials will receive the same benefits as Thai workers. They also say there are still over 200,000 unregistered laborers from Laos. Many of whom were victims of human trafficking.

Listen to our Laos Today report for more details.