Prayut threatens to arrest mass of migrant workers

By The Nation

 

Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha observes a demonstration of a retina-scanning machine, which is used to help to verify the nationalities of migrant workers, during his field visit to Samut Sakhon yesterday.

 

PM enraged as Employment Department ‘sluggish’ in registering almost 700,000 foreign labourers
 

With hundreds of thousands of migrant workers still needing to register according to the government’s timetable, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha yesterday threatened to arrest everyone who failed to do so, while criticising the Labour Ministry for what he considered “sluggish management” of the process. 

 

Prayut reacted angrily after he learned from the chief of the ministry’s Employment Department, Anurak Thossarat, that the process had been going slow due to insufficient numbers of retina scanning machines, which already had ignited a controversy in the Cabinet.

 

“Why can’t you buy them? This should have been done in our last lives,” Prayut shouted, slamming his fist on the table. “You have to do everything ... if it’s not finished by June, no more exceptions will be made.

 

“If they [migrant workers] can’t be registered in time, they will have to be arrested,” he said.

 

“I would like to ask people not to oppose the government in its law enforcement. We’d better cooperate. I can’t allow it if officers can’t finish their jobs in time.”

 

The verification is crucial to the registration process to legalise millions of migrant workers in Thailand so that they and their employers abide by the pending migrant worker management law.

 

Implementation of the law, initially set to be enforced last year, was postponed by a junta order following a drastic demographic shift as migrant workers, mostly from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos, returned to their home countries, eliciting concerns from the private sector.

 

The law entails harsh fines of Bt400,000 to Bt800,000 for each illegal migrant worker, to be paid by employers, while the workers could face five years in prison, fines of Bt2,000 to Bt100,000 or both.

 

An estimated 698,675 workers have until June 30, when the law is to be enforced, to register, which will enable them to stay in the country for another two years.

 

About 988,798 migrant workers had already had their nationalities verified, including 784,091 Myanmar people, 157,232 Cambodians and 47,475 Laotians, Anurak said.

 

The stalled purchase of retina-scanning machines, meanwhile, reportedly contributed to the sudden resignation of former labour minister General Sirichai Dithakul last November.

 

NGOs told to put Thailand first

 

Prayut yesterday made a field trip to Samut Sakhon, a coastal province in Thailand’s lower Central region, which is a hub of the fishing industry. As a result, it also hosts a major Myanmar community that is involved in the industry.

 

It is also a special area of focus in monitoring illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, including inspections of workers’ living and working conditions on and offshore.

 

The government has set up special monitoring centres and upgraded regulations to address IUU fishing issues, which affects Thailand’s human rights image and trade relations with the international community. The European Commission (EC) issued a yellow card to Thailand in April 2015 for not taking sufficient measures to fight illegal fishing. After new rounds of evaluation by the EC over the past years, the military government expected its status would be upgraded. 

 

Prayut also visited a migrant worker community as well as NGOs monitoring the area, where he asked for them to “help the government”.

 

“I understand the NGOs’ work, but you have to see as well where the national interests are,” he said. “You have to help us to explain to the international community and shouldn’t let the government do all the explaining, especially regarding IUU and human trafficking.

 

“The international community has more rules everyday. They are seeking measures that benefit their own groups and if we side with them too much, it won’t serve our purpose. Our work will be in trouble too,” he said. “NGOs should solve [community] problems while also helping the government.”

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30340272

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-06

38 minutes ago, webfact said:

“If they [migrant workers] can’t be registered in time, they will have to be arrested,” he said.

Mass exodus followed by plenty of backtracking imminent.

 

I hope these migrant workers get a little annoyed over this treatment by the incompetent buffoons who are running this system and don't ever come back.

 

Thailand will seriously regret this.

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by ukrules

Wow arrest 700K people what a payday for the RTP.

 

Won't happen. 

The man is obviously not up to date with what his can do or don't, and in most cases, will do

or won't, unable to even have a police force he can trust with everyday news of his

police top brass being caught and transferred after being implicated and a party to this vices

all over the country, he's going to have a tough job in arresting hundreds and thousands of

migrants and controlling the situation....

What a complete deleted!

 

Money has been spent on submarines and watches etc, much more important than alien detectors.

7 minutes ago, ezzra said:

The man is obviously not up to date with what his can do or don't, and in most cases, will do

or won't, unable to even have a police force he can trust with everyday news of his

police top brass being caught and transferred after being implicated and a party to this vices

all over the country, he's going to have a tough job in arresting hundreds and thousands of

migrants and controlling the situation....

And then having to turn out of their hammocks 800,00 or so lazy Thai to replace them.

 

Now..that would truly lead to civil unrest.

40 minutes ago, ukrules said:

Mass exodus followed by plenty of backtracking imminent.

 

I hope these migrant workers get a little annoyed over this treatment by the incompetent buffoons who are running this system and don't ever come back.

 

Thailand will seriously regret this.

The  whole registration is completely  ridiculous in the way they have done it, Immigrant  workers can only be registered at your job only ONE place of work, their  work has to be specified exactly and if they do anything different you as the employer will  get that fine. Not only  that the registration centres are way too  far apart and the queues are too  long and they want way too  much paperwork.

These  workers,  like  all of them here, up and leave your  job at anytime and then you have to go thru the whole crazy charade with the next lot involving a lot of  time. This  could be 4-5  times a  year

We now  no  longer employ any migrant workers.

What they should have done was  offer totally FREE registration in one easy step and also that the workers could do ANY  job, the reality is now many migrant workers don't  want to work on the land and all want factory jobs so when the  govt spouts the "they are stealing jobs  from Thais BS, well THEY ALREADY HAVE if they work in factories.

Basically a stupid idea badly thought out and implemented and with the usual reams of paperwork and unnecessary guff. Thailand to a tee!

Wow! Such a powerful man. 

 

I hope he scares them away and has to come out and say, “I wasn’t being serious. It was a joke. Don’t you know when I’m joking?”.

 

The man doesn’t understand the country around him. 

3 minutes ago, rkidlad said:

Wow! Such a powerful man. 

 

I hope he scares them away and has to come out and say, “I wasn’t being serious. It was a joke. Don’t you know when I’m joking?”.

 

The man doesn’t understand the country around him. 

Beating the xenophobia drum once again.

 

It has become a complete drum corps over the last few years.

“If they [migrant workers] can’t be registered in time, they will have to be arrested,” he said.

 

Can't put the correct procedures in place in time and then goes off on a Tommy Tantrum threatening to arrest those attempting to register but can't because of Govt failings......and this is a guy in charge of a whole country. Totally unsuited for anything except barking orders to conscripts on the parade ground imho.

sack the officials!

 

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The international community has more rules everyday.

 

The problem is you can't drive your tinpot tanks to overthrow elected governments in other countries that make up said international community. And, when your window-dressing doesn't appear to be working, it's always a good time to throw a tantrum.

Many times i have said that Prayut lives in la-la land, his latest outburst proves it.

9 minutes ago, AGareth2 said:

sack the officials!

 

The first minister WAS sacked for making a complete balls of the task of registering immigrant workers. Now Prayut has the replacement minister in his sights for causing him further personal embarrassment.

Of course Prayut's solution is some wild-eyed fist banging and incomprehensible threats while completely forgetting it was him and his incompetent army generals who passed the new laws with the impossible timetable in the first place. Duh!

But Prayut is a master at playing the victim while blaming others for his own government's legislative failures.

These buffoons couldn't organise a picnic.

 

2 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

The first minister WAS sacked for making a complete balls of the task of registering immigrant workers. Now Prayut has the replacement minister in his sights for causing him further personal embarrassment.

Of course Prayut's solution is some wild-eyed fist banging and incomprehensible threats while completely forgetting it was him and his incompetent army generals who passed the new laws with the impossible timetable in the first place. Duh!

But Prayut is a master at playing the victim while blaming others for his own government's legislative failures.

These buffoons couldn't organise a picnic.

 

"Prayut is a master at playing the victim while blaming others.."

 

Dead smack in the middle of the Thai personality spectrum,then?

8 minutes ago, Cadbury said:

These buffoons couldn't organise a picnic.

Or a booze-up in a brewery.

so would he arrest them if they "discovered" them without the eye thing?

Shades of July, 2017.

 

It might be nice if the Junta, with it's dozens of reform committees could actually solve some problems.

 

 

2 hours ago, webfact said:

Prayut threatens to arrest mass of migrant workers

And where would he think he's gonna do this arresting . . . at the quayside, as the boats moor-up? . . . I wanna be there for that gig. How does this guy sleep at night, with all that crazy stuff buzzing around his bonce?

3 hours ago, webfact said:

you have to see as well where the national interests are,” he said. “You have to help us to explain

i see, so it is our job (apparently not his) as expats, not really wanted here, but part of the public here to define, explain and care for the thai national interests

This episode reminds me of another fairy-tail,

 

"I,ll huff and puff and blow your house down"

 

 

Astonishing that he went unprepared. He knew the issues before hand and his

ministry would have brief him and solution discussed. Total inept and incompetent. If he was my manager, I would have sacked him. But but he is the coup leader and he can continue to act like an angry fool.  

finding labor here is already difficult, sorry to say send them home and it would prove a serious lack of "simple labor" to many short term jobs and projects.

Not looking at cost of labor, looking for some on to do a job! Most short term, some only a few hours.

26 minutes ago, Eric Loh said:

Astonishing that he went unprepared. He knew the issues before hand and his

ministry would have brief him and solution discussed. Total inept and incompetent. If he was my manager, I would have sacked him. But but he is the coup leader and he can continue to act like an angry fool.  

Blaming the migrants for working when the agency charged with making them legal cannot register them fast enough.  Only an unelected, incompetent,  omnipotent fool would make such remarks.  And they wonder why they are a laughing stock.  Junta lovers on this forum are a rare sight these days.  Wonder why ?

I can only imagine his frustration. The corrupt inept bureaucracy is far greater challenge than any issue.

17 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Blaming the migrants for working when the agency charged with making them legal cannot register them fast enough.  Only an unelected, incompetent,  omnipotent fool would make such remarks.  And they wonder why they are a laughing stock.  Junta lovers on this forum are a rare sight these days.  Wonder why ?

His government created this mess when they issue a royal decree to fine heavily on companies that have illegal workers in June last year. That caused an exodus of workers creating a massive problem for the economy. Then he use 44 to rescind the decree to allow registration. All this mess was the making by his government and related ministries. Down to poor leadership and management of the whole process. His ministries are badly unprepared. He is the maker of the mess. Time to go.

7 hours ago, webfact said:

“Why can’t you buy them? This should have been done in our last lives,” Prayut shouted, slamming his fist on the table. “You have to do everything ... if it’s not finished by June, no more exceptions will be made.

 

“If they [migrant workers] can’t be registered in time, they will have to be arrested,” he said.

Typical reaction of a spoilt 3-year old brat leader of this country: "I cannot do something, so blame it and let it out on those <deleted> foreigners". 

 

Here's an idea, Thailand: kick all the foreigners out, build a wall around the country, and do what the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s did. Back to the stone age... 

3 hours ago, Darcula said:

 

The problem is you can't drive your tinpot tanks to overthrow elected governments in other countries that make up said international community. And, when your window-dressing doesn't appear to be working, it's always a good time to throw a tantrum.

You are happy with your own government?

All the new rules, followed by new taxes, etc, etc, etc.

And all, it seems, to minimise your freedom and giving immigrants more.

Is it all that important to have Retina scans just ten fingerprints like they do in Indo are just as good, not many will cut off both hands to escape detection, these can be placed on a computer database, not  good look from the leader of a country slamming his fist down reminds me of Kruschev slamming his shoe down..................................

Ah, so now we know what the migrants rights meeting was about the other day - limiting them !