Migrant worker Som Nang sat waiting with his wife and their two-year-old daughter for hours on Wednesday night for his turn to register at the Labour Ministry's One Stop Service centre.
The Cambodian family arrived at the centre with a few mats to sleep on. Although they knew the registration would not be a breeze, nothing had prepared them for the tough conditions they were about to endure that night on the grounds of the ministry, where the centre is located.
Som Nang was given a time slot but that got pushed back. The morning came but the centre was not done processing its registration backlog from Wednesday.
"I managed to get a few winks of sleep around dawn. My girl didn't sleep until 2am. She was running around and I had to keep an eye on her," he said.
Sleep deprivation and an agonisingly long queue were the least of Som Nang's worries. The ministry was bursting at the seams with migrant workers and, after hours of queuing, everyone was looking for a place to answer the call of nature.
"There weren't enough toilets. I told my wife to take the girl to have a wee at the dumpster near the car park. At least it's hidden from public view," he said.
"A dumpster's probably a better place to do our personal business. The smell of trash might overpower everything else," Som Nang said, adding it would have been more tolerable if mobile toilets had been provided.
As hundreds more migrant workers rush to register at the centre, which closes Saturday, the 10 toilets near the ministry's canteen appeared even more scarce. Some resorted to relieving themselves behind cars in the parking lot, or nestled amid bushes and trees by the sewer system, according to cleaning staff.
The stench of trash, urine and faeces, however, did little to distract the many migrant workers who were squatting shoulder to shoulder in the midday heat waiting for their turn to register for the OSS Thursday.
Som Nang's family secured the best spot where the breadwinner could keep an eye on the line and an ear on the loudspeaker system for when it finally called his name.
The OSS centre is working flat out to complete the labour registrations. But that is the only one of four OSS centres in Bangkok which opens around the clock.
One of the steps in registration is a photo. There is one camera at the one-stop centre.
The other centres are in shopping malls: at the IT Square in Lak Si district, the Big C store on Phetkasem Road, and the Tang Hua Seng in Thon Buri. The three OSS centres open and close when the shopping malls do.
The four Bangkok centres are among 81 set up nationwide to integrate the works of migrant labour registration handled by various agencies, including the Department of Provincial Administration.
These issue the workers with ID numbers after taking a scan of their faces as well as their fingerprints.
The Social Security Office, Immigration Bureau and Public Health Ministry are all responsible for checking workers' health.
After registering, the workers go through a nationality verification process before they obtain work permits online. Once the processes are completed, they can extend their stay in Thailand and work here until March 2020.
Som Nang said the exhausting wait for OSS registration was a strain both physically and financially.
"It wears us out with the sun beating down on us like this. My wife soaked a cloth with bottled water and we've been using that it to dab our little girl's head to ease the heat," he said.
As night turned to day, the family scurried to buy food from hawkers nearby.
A bowl of rice topped with curry sells for between 40 and 50 baht and a bottle of water is priced at 10 baht.
Vendors were making brisk sales.
"It's getting so crowded here. Some of my fellow workers are lying down. Others are sitting under what little shade they could find. They are waiting for their brokers to call them when it's time to register," Som Nang said.
"People with small kids like me have spent quite a bit of money. Apart from food, we bought water, sweets and fruit to keep the little ones occupied so they wouldn't get cranky. That would have made things even worse," he said.
A Myanmar worker, who asked not to be named, said she brought her three-year-old with her to the ministry on Wednesday night.
They found a tiny space under one of the buildings to sleep. She said some officials helped by giving the kids crayons and paper.
A cleaner said she was overwrought given the mass of people and garbage piling up. She added the ministry outsourced cleaners to make up for the shortfall.
