BKK POST:Jobs opened up as 19,000 f

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February 17, 1998


                                     



                               EMPLOYMENT

              Jobs opened up as
              19,000 foreign
              workers go home

              Yuwadee Tunyasiri and Anucha Charoenpo

              Some 19,000 foreign workers were deported last month,
              leaving job vacancies for 7,000 Thais, according to Labour and
              Social Welfare permanent secretary Parn Juntraparn.

              Mr Parn said about 7,000 unemployed people were able to find
              jobs after the foreign workers were sent home, but the number
              of unemployed in the Labour Ministry's list remained at 310,000.

              The ministry must try to deport 310,000 more foreign workers
              over the next six months, but the measure will cover only illegal
              foreign workers in factories, not those in the agricultural sector.

              He said a measure to require entrepreneurs to refrain from hiring
              foreigners and to employ Thais instead within 45 days had not
              yet been implemented.

              Concerning assistance for Thai labour in the Middle East in case
              of a US-Iraq war, Mr Parn said the deputy permanent
              secretaries of the Foreign and Labour ministries who were now
              in Kuwait were working out measures to help Thai workers.

              The Israeli labour permanent secretary had informed the ministry
              that some 1,800 illegal Thai workers out of 24,000 Thai
              labourers there would be sent back home, but promised to take
              good care of the remaining ones.

              About 130 Burmese illegals have recently turned themselves in to
              police following the repatriation policy. A total of 127 Burmese
              nationals, 71 of them men, have been sent to holding centres in
              Kanchanaburi after surrendering to authorities with their
              employers responsible for the expenses.

              Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai Wannasathit, chief of the Immigration
              Police, said this was the result of a public relations campaign
              urging foreigners who overstay their visas to give themselves up.

              "None of the 127 people were arrested and forced to leave.
              They surrendered to us and are willing to go back home," said
              the immigration police commissioner.

              A 36-year-old Burmese man identified as Tang said yesterday
              he wanted to go home because there was no work for him. He
              said he had saved a sum of money from his five years of work
              here and was not thinking of coming back.

              As mass repatriations are imminent, there is a report of an
              extortionist gang operating in the province to dupe illegals.

              The commissioner said police were investigating a report that a
              group of extortionists were demanding 2,000-3,000 baht from
              illegal workers to help them get out of the country.

              Another worker, Ke, 35, said several of his friends wanted to go
              home but feared that they would be prosecuted. He said some
              were told by their employees that they would be arrested if they
              turned themselves in.

              Meanwhile, the province, whose main business is fisheries, is
              facing a labour shortage, according to business operators.
              Preecha Sirisang-arampi said the province needs about 100,000
              workers while only 190 applied for the jobs.

              "And 60 of them quit later because they couldn't stand it. They
              think they can find a better job," he said.




                                     




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Last Modified: Tue, Feb 17, 1998