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Thais repatriate thousands of illeg



Thais repatriate thousands of illegal workers

BANGKOK, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Thailand has repatriated about 30,000 illegal
foreign workers in the past three months as the country grapples with an
economic crisis and growing unemployment, officials said on Tuesday. 

Most, or about 85 percent of the repatriated illegal workers, had come from
Myanmar (Burma), official immigration records show. 

The records show that as of February 5, 29,412 illegal Myanmar workers had
been sent home through border checkpoints since the start of November. 

Demand for cheap but illegal foreign labour has fallen in the face of an
economic crisis which is forecast to almost double unemployment in Thailand to
over two million. 

Labour and Social Welfare Minister Trairong Suwanakhiri has said he will
repatriate an estimated 300,000 alien workers registered to work in Thailand
when their current one-year terms expire. 

The number of aliens registered to work in Thailand has more than halved from
300,000 in September, officials said. 

``The official record shows as of February 10, only 141,610 alien workers
working with Thai employers,'' a registrar at the Ministry of Labour & Social
Welfare told Reuters. 

Trairong has also urged the Ministry of Interior to help send back a further
one million workers who have entered the country and are working illegally. 

Foreign workers who once sought work on Thailand's formerly booming
construction and agricultural industries have found their skills no longer
required as building projects stall or newly unemployed urban Thais move back
to the provinces. 

``We received reports from the provinces that employers had stopped hiring
nearly 30,000 Myanmar workers and 7,000 Thais have been hired to replace
them,'' a labour official said. REUTERS