Workers evacuated from Israel worried about their outstanding debts

[webfact]

 

Most Thai workers returning from Israel are happy to be back home with their loved ones, but some are worried about how and where they can make money to repay the loans they took out from banks or private lenders to pay for their expenses to work in Israel.

 

The loans range from 100,000 to 400,000 baht, including air fares, brokerage fees for employment agencies, medical check-up bills and personal expenses. The salaries are, however, attractive.

 

One of the returnees, Wiset Posai, a native of Mukdahan province, said that he borrowed about 100,000 baht from a bank in order to work in Israel and he has already repaid 20,000 baht, leaving the balance which he has no idea how he is going to repay.

 

He said he and other Thai workers had lived in constant fear after the Hamas attacks over a week ago, because the farm on which they worked was close to Gaza.

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2023-10-17

 

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[ravip]

Whatever happens, it is the poor who are always penalised.

[connda]

They should be happy that the still are endowed with life so that they can worry about how they will pay that debt. 

Also - there is an object lesson here.  Paying large sums of money in order to secure a job is sorta like paying large sums of money because a romance scammer tells you that for only 200,000 THB you'll make 20,000,000 THB.

Really.  If you want to spend that sort of money on a game of chance, book a flight to Mexico City, hook up with a coyote service, cross the wide open US border, get a free phone and a bus ride, and get taken to a sanctuary city where you'll be hooked up with social service, entitlement payments, a job, and eventually a green card. 

[retarius]

Join the millions and millions of people in Thailand, rural and urban, with debts to usurers run by gangs. They have worries too. Maybe the government could expand the digital wallet to 10 million per person to give to the gangs,

[retarius]

You can always tell a job is going to be truly awful if they make you pay for the flights. 

[retarius]

There was a story on here today (this morning) about a gang member who killed the young daughter of a man who owed them money. That's real fear, not owing 80,000 to the bank.

[billd766]

11 minutes ago, retarius said:

Join the millions and millions of people in Thailand, rural and urban, with debts to usurers run by gangs. They have worries too. Maybe the government could expand the digital wallet to 10 million per person to give to the gangs,

Just oozing with sympathy, aren't you?

 

They HAD jobs in another country and were caught up in a war which was NONE of their fault.

 

They had the gumption to go out and look for another job legally, to help their family in Thailand where they most likely could not find work.

 

Millions of people worldwide do it and would have the same problem if they were caught up in a war.

 

I admire them for looking and working outside the box and sad for what happened to them.

 

THEY have my sympathy as do the families of the Thai workers who were killed and injured.

[retarius]

Just now, billd766 said:

Just oozing with sympathy, aren't you?

 

They HAD jobs in another country and were caught up in a war which was NONE of their fault.

 

They had the gumption to go out and look for another job legally, to help their family in Thailand where they most likely could not find work.

 

Millions of people worldwide do it and would have the same problem if they were caught up in a war.

 

I admire them for looking and working outside the box and sad for what happened to them.

 

THEY have my sympathy as do the families of the Thai workers who were killed and injured.

Baloney. 

[Morch]

18 minutes ago, retarius said:

You can always tell a job is going to be truly awful if they make you pay for the flights. 

Hmmm....no always, though. If they really want you, that's one of the first perks to pop. Even makes it easy to sift through job offers/requests.

[billd766]

8 minutes ago, retarius said:

Baloney. 

What an intelligent and sophisticated answer which shows your intelligence level.

[fredwiggy]

2 hours ago, connda said:

They should be happy that the still are endowed with life so that they can worry about how they will pay that debt. 

Also - there is an object lesson here.  Paying large sums of money in order to secure a job is sorta like paying large sums of money because a romance scammer tells you that for only 200,000 THB you'll make 20,000,000 THB.

Really.  If you want to spend that sort of money on a game of chance, book a flight to Mexico City, hook up with a coyote service, cross the wide open US border, get a free phone and a bus ride, and get taken to a sanctuary city where you'll be hooked up with social service, entitlement payments, a job, and eventually a green card. 

Actually, you'll pay a coyote to help you cross the border, no guarantees of anything when you get there, and soon, a bus ride back across the border, where you'll have lost the money to the coyote and have to start all over again, where the next trip could get you lost in south Texas, out of water, and dead from dehydration. Green cards are not issued to illegals, and neither are legal jobs.

[hotchilli]

17 hours ago, webfact said:

The loans range from 100,000 to 400,000 baht, including air fares, brokerage fees for employment agencies, medical check-up bills and personal expenses. The salaries are, however, attractive.

Need to be... jeez talk about getting fleeced even before starting work

[thaibeachlovers]

14 hours ago, billd766 said:

Just oozing with sympathy, aren't you?

 

They HAD jobs in another country and were caught up in a war which was NONE of their fault.

 

They had the gumption to go out and look for another job legally, to help their family in Thailand where they most likely could not find work.

 

Millions of people worldwide do it and would have the same problem if they were caught up in a war.

 

I admire them for looking and working outside the box and sad for what happened to them.

 

THEY have my sympathy as do the families of the Thai workers who were killed and injured.

They should not have had to pay for anything- that IMO is just a scam.

When I went to work in Saudi I didn't have to pay for anything, as they paid to get my services.

Should be the same for workers to israel.

[thaibeachlovers]

18 hours ago, webfact said:

brokerage fees for employment agencies,

That's a big scam IMO. The country that wants the workers should pay the employment agencies.

[SingAPorn]

Israel is a rich nation and should pay back, or the Gulf countries. All this says that it's not always a good deal to go out working in such disturbed countries.

[thaibeachlovers]

41 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

Need to be... jeez talk about getting fleeced even before starting work

It's a huge scam and happens in many countries, but only the poor and unskilled get scammed.

In a certain wealthy Arab country I knew well it happened too, and then the employers sometimes didn't pay them, as well.

[jacko45k]

1 minute ago, thaibeachlovers said:

They should not have had to pay for anything- that IMO is just a scam.

When I went to work in Saudi I didn't have to pay for anything, as they paid to get my services.

Should be the same for workers to israel.

Of course I had the same wrt jobs in Abu Dhabi and Saudi.....

Not sure we can blame the Israelis or local agents for the need to pay up front... but it was also prevalent in other foreign workers in Saudi, from places like India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan....in Thailand you have to pay up front many times to get domestic jobs!

[thaibeachlovers]

Just now, jacko45k said:

Of course I had the same wrt jobs in Abu Dhabi and Saudi.....

Not sure we can blame the Israelis or local agents for the need to pay up front... but it was also prevalent in other foreign workers in Saudi, from places like India, Philippines, Bangladesh, Pakistan....in Thailand you have to pay up front many times to get domestic jobs!

It's not surprising that I have low opinion of employers/ managers. I had very few that were any good.

[freeworld]

15 hours ago, retarius said:

You can always tell a job is going to be truly awful if they make you pay for the flights. 

Surely if one has to pay to secure a job that could be considered human trafficking. Wonder how anyone in any country can get away with that.

[ravip]

15 hours ago, retarius said:

Baloney. 

Honestly, you think so?

[bamnutsak]

OK, tell me again why this isn't Human Trafficking?

 

And why the governments of Thailand and Israel aren't complicit.

 

https://www.mol.go.th/en/news/mol-and-israel-sign-agreement-on-the-implementation-of-the-agreement-between-the-government-of-israel-and-thailand-on-the-temporary-employment-of-thai-labour-in-agriculture-in-israel

[CHdiver]

25 minutes ago, freeworld said:

Surely if one has to pay to secure a job that could be considered human trafficking. Wonder how anyone in any country can get away with that.

I read it that they take a loan out so they can affort airfaire and other costs. That has nothing to do with trafficking. 

[ravip]

41 minutes ago, thaibeachlovers said:

They should not have had to pay for anything- that IMO is just a scam.

When I went to work in Saudi I didn't have to pay for anything, as they paid to get my services.

Should be the same for workers to israel.

You are right. I too went to work in Saudi and did not pay anything - that was around 1983. But today, people pay millions to get work abroad (especially in the developing countries) - no these people all are NOT fools, it's desperation.

 

For example, if a Thai national (or any other national from a non privileged country) wants to visit the US, UK, EU etc on a holiday, the procedure is unbelievably complicated - and if rejected the applicant lose ALL their money. But,  it helps to apply through an agent, at an enormous cost... for whatever reason.

(no, I am not referring to people who wants to over-stay illegally)

 

The Thai immigration procedure seems a piece of cake, comparatively.

Sad, but this is reality!

 

 

[Cake Monster]

Family Debt is one of, if not, the principle drivers for Thais to work abroad.

 

[bannork]

16 hours ago, retarius said:

There was a story on here today (this morning) about a ganghw member who killed the young daughter of a man who owed them money. That's real fear, not owing 80,000 to the bank.

Actually a lot of the workers borrow money from loan sharks to get the jobs abroad. 

[Moonlover]

So what's their problem?

 

Thai evacuees can return to work in Israel, no re-entry visa required

 

I'm somewhat unsympathetic here. They get offered good salaries to go work there on the understanding that there's an element of risk. If they were not aware of that at the time they really did have their heads in the sand!

 

Many of us on this forum have done the same, including me. I didn't cut and run the first time a SCUD missile went bang in Riyadh. Now did I when there were car bombs going off and western compounds being attacked. It goes with the territory. And I note that something like 25,000 Thais have opted to stay in Israel and tough it out.

 

If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen.

 

 

[freeworld]

2 hours ago, CHdiver said:

I read it that they take a loan out so they can affort airfaire and other costs. That has nothing to do with trafficking. 

But it is related to that employment so it is everything in an indirect way to do with human trafficking.

 

Maybe govts should compel banks and lenders to scrutinise more what they loan money for.

[billd766]

5 hours ago, thaibeachlovers said:

They should not have had to pay for anything- that IMO is just a scam.

When I went to work in Saudi I didn't have to pay for anything, as they paid to get my services.

Should be the same for workers to israel.

But if you had to pay to get the job, would you still have gone?

 

Many years ago as a contractor I was offered a job by 2 agencies in Iraq. I turned both agencies down simply by asking the question,

 

If I am kidnapped or killed, will you still pay my wife my salary? Both said NO so I replied that if you still want me to go, I will, but I want USD $500,000 in my Thai joint bank account up front before I make a move.

 

I never got that job.

 

Most of the other contracts I went on I put all my expenses into the company and they paid them back.

 

The main difference is that I was paid for my expenses and the Thai contractors are not.