BANGKOK, July 3 (Xinhua) -- Over 15,000 Myanmar migrant workers have returned home since legal restrictions on the employment of foreign laborers was issued in Thailand last week, police said Monday.
The migrant workers have returned home via Mae Sot district in northwestern Thailand which shares border with Myanmar's Myawaddy township.
Many more migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos are believed to follow the trend in the wake of Thailand's executive decree which increases the amount of fine for illegal hiring of migrant workers, the police said.
Any employer in Thailand found to have hired an illegal migrant worker is subject to a maximum of 800,000 baht (about 22,857 U.S. dollars) in fine per head, according to the new decree.
Those Myanmar workers are expected to come back for jobs in Thailand after they obtain official documentation from the Myanmar authorities.
About 2 million to 3 million Myanmar workers were working in Thailand previously, and it is unclear how many of them will be affected by the new decree.
