Thailand Plans to Open Borders to 400,000 Foreign Laborers Next Month

[webfact]

Men from Myanmar play a game of sepak takraw after working at a seafood market in Samut Sakhon province, west of Bangkok, Jan. 3, 2021. Sarumon Nornrit/BenarNews

 

Nontarat Phaicharoen
Bangkok

 

Thailand will open its borders to as many as 400,000 foreign workers next month after a 20-month shutdown as it allows laborers from three neighboring countries to alleviate a workforce shortage, the country’s COVID-19 task-force said Friday.

 

Workers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar will be allowed to enter through five border checkpoints and can work in the country for two years, a task-force spokesman said, adding the government would ensure that those laborers have been vaccinated.

 

“The prime minister, who is the chairman of the COVID-19 task force, has approved the measure,” Taweesilp Wissanuyothin, spokesman for Center for the COVID-19 Situation Administration (CCSA), told reporters on Friday.

 

Full story: https://www.benarnews.org/english/news/thai/foreign-workers-11122021153400.html

 

-- © Copyright Benar News 2021-11-15

 

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[RichardColeman]

Guess this is how they will meet their 300,000 arrivals each for november and december

 

Ridiculous that we have to have 2 vaccines, tests , quarantine , insurance, another test and another test and these people will just walk in - can't tell me this lot will have what we will have to get

[johnhender]

Yet they are worried about tourists,  will the labor have to use " ThaiPass " and go to the hotels for a night and use the the tracking App - there is no logic to the way Thailand operates 

[Daithi85]

32 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Guess this is how they will meet their 300,000 arrivals each for november and december

 

Ridiculous that we have to have 2 vaccines, tests , quarantine , insurance, another test and another test and these people will just walk in - can't tell me this lot will have what we will have to get

Give  it another month, tests and quarantine will be scrapped completely. Cambodia has just announced no quarintine and no Pcr tests to fully vaccinated travellers. 

[Orinoco]

37 minutes ago, RichardColeman said:

Guess this is how they will meet their 300,000 arrivals each for november and december

 

Ridiculous that we have to have 2 vaccines, tests , quarantine , insurance, another test and another test and these people will just walk in - can't tell me this lot will have what we will have to get

They love us, so much

TIT

[Danderman123]

32 minutes ago, Daithi85 said:

Give  it another month, tests and quarantine will be scrapped completely. Cambodia has just announced no quarintine and no Pcr tests to fully vaccinated travellers. 

PCR tests still required.

[ezzra]

1 hour ago, RichardColeman said:

Guess this is how they will meet their 300,000 arrivals each for november and december

 

Ridiculous that we have to have 2 vaccines, tests , quarantine , insurance, another test and another test and these people will just walk in - can't tell me this lot will have what we will have to get

Ah there's a distinct different between them and us, they're POOR as the incoming tourists are rich you see?...

[Captain Monday]

39 minutes ago, Daithi85 said:

Give  it another month, tests and quarantine will be scrapped completely. Cambodia has just announced no quarintine and no Pcr tests to fully vaccinated travellers. 

No way. . Travel insurance is permanent.

Thais don't want independent travelers, especially westerners. The authorities want Asian group tours, following flags. Once the Chinese are allowed in again they wont have to even care. Prepaid hotels and tests will be required for years. 

[StayinThailand2much]

What could possibly go wrong?

[Daithi85]

1 minute ago, Captain Monday said:

No way. . Travel insurance is permanent.

Thais don't want independent travelers, especially westerners. The authorities want Asian group tours, following flags. Once the Chinese are allowed in again they wont have to even care. Prepaid hotels and tests will be required for years. 

I respectfully disagree, the place  is in ruins, driving around  last night looking at all the for sale signs on bars and shops ,they will  need to do what ever they can to get tourists here very quickly.if other countries in the region drop there crazy entry rules the rest will follow.

[actonion]

What Thailand plans,    and     what Thailand does,     is two different things

[LomSak27]

15 minutes ago, StayinThailand2much said:

What could possibly go wrong?

This sounds like a December, January's surge, ready made. Bars set to open in January was it? Hmmmm

[Captain Monday]

5 minutes ago, Daithi85 said:

I respectfully disagree, the place  is in ruins, driving around  last night looking at all the for sale signs on bars and shops ,they will  need to do what ever they can to get tourists here very quickly.if other countries in the region drop there crazy entry rules the rest will follow.

Well I spent 6 months in Thailand this year agree Phuket , BKK and parts of Chiang Mai are in ruins.  I misspoke saying "Thais" don't want independent travelers of course they do, but they have no agency or voice. It is the puritanical anti-western authorities setting the policies. They are rich elites mostly.  To them the crusade to eliminate western influence and crush "nightlife" is way more important than alleviating the suffering of tourism industry workers.  

 

How many years have they mooted required travel insurance, you think it is going away?

[zzaa09]

2 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Guess this is how they will meet their 300,000 arrivals each for november and december

 

Ridiculous that we have to have 2 vaccines, tests , quarantine , insurance, another test and another test and these people will just walk in - can't tell me this lot will have what we will have to get

Well...you know how those contradictory double standards work. 

Off course, no one in government circles [even opposition] would offer a word of challenge or question regarding such an act. 

 

This worker shortage doesn't really exist - appears that the authorities are looking for very cheap labour/illegal low wages that Thais would be up in arms about. 

[mtls2005]

The thai economy seems incapable of functioning at a reasonable clip without the use of slave labor.

 

And there is a shortage of Burmese maids.

 

 

[kelboy]

That will be the country closing down again if this happens. IDIOTS. 

[rott]

1 hour ago, Daithi85 said:

I respectfully disagree, the place  is in ruins, driving around  last night looking at all the for sale signs on bars and shops ,they will  need to do what ever they can to get tourists here very quickly.if other countries in the region drop there crazy entry rules the rest will follow.

That appears to be the point of it, to squeeze bars out of existence in Pattaya and parts of Bangkok. 

 

Anecdotal reports on here say that in much of the country food and alcohol is sold as normal in caffs, but I get reports from other parts that there is nowt doing. 

[EricTh]

1 hour ago, Captain Monday said:

No way. . Travel insurance is permanent.

Thais don't want independent travelers, especially westerners. The authorities want Asian group tours, following flags. Once the Chinese are allowed in again they wont have to even care. Prepaid hotels and tests will be required for years. 

 

The Chinese are allowed in, they are just not coming to Thailand.

 

 

 

[kevin612]

Are these people gonna quarantine in the hotels? I don’t wanna see Covid surge again.

[Captain Monday]

10 minutes ago, EricTh said:

 

The Chinese are allowed in, they are just not coming to Thailand.

 

 

 

Yes true. The winter Olympics are in Feb 2022 in Beijing and the Grand Party Congress (or whatever) where President Xi shall be enthroned to the panoply of greats like Mao and Deng is in November 2022.

 

No way China will allow general outbound tourism (groups, and without long qwa-ren-ten upon return) until at least next winter,

[Flink]

1 hour ago, Captain Monday said:

Well I spent 6 months in Thailand this year agree Phuket , BKK and parts of Chiang Mai are in ruins.  I misspoke saying "Thais" don't want independent travelers of course they do, but they have no agency or voice. It is the puritanical anti-western authorities setting the policies. They are rich elites mostly.  To them the crusade to eliminate western influence and crush "nightlife" is way more important than alleviating the suffering of tourism industry workers.  

 

How many years have they mooted required travel insurance, you think it is going away?

"It is the puritanical anti-western authorities setting the policies." Yeah, very anti-western PEOPLE, not so anti-western when it comes to our money though.

So, if they're opening the borders for immigrant workers to come in does that mean that border runs for visa/tourist stamps will be allowed too? Also, having (thanks to their puritanical attitudes) put millions out of work by shutting down all the bars, clubs etc. why aren't they looking at retraining THOSE people to fill the vacancies. Let's face it, even if they lift the booze bans (and I'm not holding my breath for that one) there are so many places that will never reopen there must be more than 400,000 looking for work.Just because you were a waiter doesn't mean you can't learn to pour concrete.

[Flink]

28 minutes ago, kevin612 said:

Are these people gonna quarantine in the hotels? I don’t wanna see Covid surge again.

Maybe they'll just do what they did when the lockdowns started. Isolate them on their building sites and not feed/water them for weeks.

[hotchilli]

4 hours ago, webfact said:

Thailand will open its borders to as many as 400,000 foreign workers next month after a 20-month shutdown as it allows laborers from three neighboring countries to alleviate a workforce shortage, the country’s COVID-19 task-force said Friday.

What about Thailands labour force of about 5 million unemployed?

[hotchilli]

3 hours ago, johnhender said:

Yet they are worried about tourists,  will the labor have to use " ThaiPass " and go to the hotels for a night and use the the tracking App - there is no logic to the way Thailand operates 

Oh there is logic... 

[mikebell]

1 hour ago, Flink said:

there must be more than 400,000 looking for work.

There are thousands of vacancies but Thais don't want jobs where you have to WORK.  They are inherently lazy & prefer to pass their days hiding from customers in Thaiwatsadu or the like.

[Andycoops]

4 hours ago, johnhender said:

Yet they are worried about tourists,  will the labor have to use " ThaiPass " and go to the hotels for a night and use the the tracking App - there is no logic to the way Thailand operates 

Logic doesn't exist here.

I found that out after the first year of retirement.

[stereolab]

45 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

What about Thailands labour force of about 5 million unemployed?

Keep the noise down please, these hammocks do not swing by themselves.

[Pedrogaz]

4 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

Guess this is how they will meet their 300,000 arrivals each for november and december

 

Ridiculous that we have to have 2 vaccines, tests , quarantine , insurance, another test and another test and these people will just walk in - can't tell me this lot will have what we will have to get

Absolutely, you can definitely see hiso employers willingly paying for quarantines and RT-PCR tests. Pay decent wages and use unemployed Thais.

[Cake Monster]

If these Migrant laborers are going to enter the Country under anything like the proposals tables a couple of Months ago, it will just not happen, and the Illegals will be the main part of the Workforce.

It was proposes a while back, that the Migrants were to be Fully Vaxxed, be given ATK testing every week, have an Insurance for Health, be Quarantinesd at their workplaces ( AKA Bubble and Seal ) and other requirements.

All of which costs have to be born by the Employers

Yeah - right !

[Sheryl]

5 hours ago, Daithi85 said:

Give  it another month, tests and quarantine will be scrapped completely. Cambodia has just announced no quarintine and no Pcr tests to fully vaccinated travellers. 

PCR still required.