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The Nation (12/11/99)

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<font size=5><b>Employers targeted in crackdown<br>
</font></b><font face="arial" size=3>IMMIGRATION officials have set
priorities for rounding up illegal foreign workers and threatened to go
after factory owners who knowingly employ them. <br>
Pol Maj Gen Charnvudh Watcharapuk, deputy commissioner of the Immigration
Police, said the government has created three categories for illegal
foreign workers and worked out which group requires immediate action.
<br>
The most urgent group will be people suspected of being involved in
organising the trafficking of workers into Thailand, including those who
make false travel documents, Charnvudh said. <br>
The second group will be those who cross back and forth frequently,
causing disturbances, such as committing robberies and petty crime. 
<br>
The third will be those who come in illegally to take jobs in factories.
This group, Charnvudh said, is the largest and will take some time to
deal with. <br>
''This should give factory owners some time to make necessary adjustments
as we go after the first two groups,'' Charnvudh added. <br>
However, if there is no progress, authorities will move against the
employers of illegal aliens, he said. <br>
Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, amid growing pressure from the private
sector to reverse the government policy on the deportation of the Burmese
workers, dismissed calls by factory owners to create a special economic
zone in the border area of Tak province. <br>
A ''special economic zone'' would provide tax breaks for enterprises in
the zone. However, Chuan said the issue at hand is about immigration and
foreign workers, not whether factories need tax breaks. <br>
Board of Investment deputy secretary general Pairote Sompouti yesterday
said the board would revoke the privileges to board-approved factories
whose owners knowingly employ illegal foreign workers. <br>
The board's investment policy is to promote jobs for Thai nationals in
various regions and the board is against hiring illegal workers, he said.
<br>
Concerning an ongoing rumour that the military government of Rangoon had
threatened to revoke the nationality of all Burmese workers who do not
return by Nov 14, foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan urged reporters not to
jump to any conclusions as the story has yet to be confirmed. <br>
Meanwhile, more than 300 Burmese workers were massing in front of a
garment factory behind Mae Sot municipality, demanding the owner pay them
their salaries for the past month. <br>
The workers said the owner of Kings Body Concept garment factory cheated
them out of their last month's pay. <br>
A representative from the factory met workers in the afternoon and agreed
to pay them. He did not give a definite time or date for the payment.
<br>
Similar demands were launched by about 1,000 workers at nearby TK Garment
factory, but there were no reports of an organised protest. <br>
In a separate development, about 500 Thai nationals, residents of Mae Sot
district, led by a local politician, gathered in front of the Central
Hotel Mae Sot Hill urging the government not to give in to factory
owners. <br>
Two years ago, before the economic crisis emerged, Thailand hosted about
a million foreign workers. Since then some 300,000 have been repatriated
as the government tries to make jobs available for unemployed Thais.
<br>
On Nov 4, the government launched another massive crackdown to send home
a further 600,000. About 70,000 of the workers have jobs in Mae Sot,
which lies opposite eastern Burma's Karen State. <br>
Immigration police in Trang have detained about 1,000 Burmese workers,
while in Phuket only 12 have been arrested on charges of illegal entry.
<br>
The latest crackdown comes amid strained relations between Thailand and
the Burmese government. Rangoon ordered its border shut after five armed
dissidents seized the Burmese Embassy in Bangkok, taking 38 hostage at
gunpoint and preventing 51 more from leaving the compound. <br>
Police were also concerned that criminal gangs had brought their disputes
to Thai soil and have attributed much of the recent violent crime to
foreigners who were most likely staying here illegally. <br>
A case in point was the execution-style shooting of three Hong Kong men
connected to Macau gambling on the airport freeway. Police said the
incident was probably connected to Chinese triads, which are know to
operate illegal businesses in Thailand. <br>
BY CHAIYAKORN BAI-NGERN <br>
The Nation<br>
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<font size=5><b>Protests out, Burmese students told<br>
</font></b><font face="arial" size=3>THE Interior Ministry yesterday
insisted that Burmese students at the Maneeloy holding centre in
Ratchaburi province have no alternative but to respect the camp's
regulations and Thai laws. <br>
The holding centre's permanent secretary Chanasak Yuvapurna said the
place is only meant to serve as a transit point before the students
proceed to a third country. <br>
''They cannot launch any protest here. They have to abide by Thai laws
and regulations which bar them from political activities,'' he said.
<br>
The Burmese students at the holding centre protested on Wednesday after
officials put barbed wires fences to separate present residents from
newcomers, and deployed hundreds of security officials to guard the area.
<br>
They demanded that the fences and the security officials be removed.
<br>
The Thai government has set Nov 21 as the deadline for Burmese students
to report to the Interior Ministry and enter the camp. <br>
Ratchaburi Governor Komet Daengthongdee said that more than 200 Burmese
students from Bangkok had already reported and entered the camp. <br>
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Surin Pitsuwan fully supported the stricter
measures at the holding centre, saying that they have to abide by the
Thai laws and regulations. <br>
Surin added that the Burmese students should enter the holding centre so
that they have the opportunity to pursue their studies in a third
country. <br>
The Nation<br>
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