Siege On Koh Tao

[Samui Coconut]

Siege on Koh Tao

About 100 law enforcement officers yesterday laid siege to migrant workers on Koh Tao in Surat Thani province's Koh Pha-ngan district. Published on February 18, 2008

Police officers at Koh Samui Immigration Bureau led by Lt-Colonel Jaruwat Busaba, together with about 30 officers from the Royal Thai Navy Second Fleet led by Lieutenant Sarin Bhonakngern, commanded boats to blockade Koh Tao in a bid to clear migrant workers from the island. The force arrested 140 migrant workers who had been working at construction sites, hotels and restaurants.

According to investigations, most workers came from Burma and did not have work permits. They told police they had been working on the island for a long time and were paid between Bt150 and Bt200 a day.

The workers were detained at Koh Pha-ngan Police Station for deportation, but villagers claimed about 10 workers were released after their employer paid about Bt80,000 to the police.

The Nation

[ClaudeFeller]

So what?

The local policemen are regulary paid for every burmese worker, normally 1.500-2.000 THB per month. Sometimes Surathani police wants their piece of cake and come over to Samui or KPN or Koh Tao. The tariff to release them and to be quiet is 5.000 THB per worker.

The wage of 150-200 THB seems to be low but if you add the extra expenses for the corrupt police they are paid 200-300 THB. And their are better working than the locals.

TIT!

[jocwaoh]

So what?

The local policemen are regulary paid for every burmese worker, normally 1.500-2.000 THB per month. Sometimes Surathani police wants their piece of cake and come over to Samui or KPN or Koh Tao. The tariff to release them and to be quiet is 5.000 THB per worker.

The wage of 150-200 THB seems to be low but if you add the extra expenses for the corrupt police they are paid 200-300 THB. And their are better working than the locals.

TIT!

Agree, some one forgot or tried not pay the boys in brown...but they always get theirs!

[Robski]

Did they finish their building work then?

[highdiver]

So what?

The local policemen are regulary paid for every burmese worker, normally 1.500-2.000 THB per month. Sometimes Surathani police wants their piece of cake and come over to Samui or KPN or Koh Tao. The tariff to release them and to be quiet is 5.000 THB per worker.

The wage of 150-200 THB seems to be low but if you add the extra expenses for the corrupt police they are paid 200-300 THB. And their are better working than the locals.

TIT!

Why pay the police??

if you take them down to the labour office and issuethem a proper work permit you pay only 5000baht and they are legal. you can do it as a company or as an individual.

I fail to see why you need to pay the police 2000thb for an ilegal worker when making them legal costs less.

[Jandajoy]

So what?

The local policemen are regulary paid for every burmese worker, normally 1.500-2.000 THB per month. Sometimes Surathani police wants their piece of cake and come over to Samui or KPN or Koh Tao. The tariff to release them and to be quiet is 5.000 THB per worker.

The wage of 150-200 THB seems to be low but if you add the extra expenses for the corrupt police they are paid 200-300 THB. And their are better working than the locals.

TIT!

Can you prove this ?

[ClaudeFeller]

So what?

The local policemen are regulary paid for every burmese worker, normally 1.500-2.000 THB per month. Sometimes Surathani police wants their piece of cake and come over to Samui or KPN or Koh Tao. The tariff to release them and to be quiet is 5.000 THB per worker.

The wage of 150-200 THB seems to be low but if you add the extra expenses for the corrupt police they are paid 200-300 THB. And their are better working than the locals.

TIT!

Can you prove this ?

No, it was a joke!!

Like it is not true that some farangs pay money to the police and like a one-year-visa is 5.000 THB and not 2.900 THB regular fees. Why farangs or Thais pay money? Because they dont want problems.

[mssabai]

This is a really sad situation. Many of the workers from Burma who are here illegally are from black listed families, hill tribes or are of a similarly dangerous status to be returned to Burma. Deportation often means returning to prison, forced labour gangs or simply extreme poverty. It is not just that one worker that will suffer but his whole family. What makes it even worse is that often during these raids, just to maximise the figures of those arrested, even those with legal work permits will be deported under trumped up excuses that their work permit does not fit exactly the job they are doing.

They threatened to do this on a beach in KP. It would have literally meant 4 of the resorts closing overnight due to lack of staff, and 3 generations of a hill tribe family being sent back to Burma where the patriach (at the grand old age of 75) was facing execution. All were here legally. Fortunately enough money was pulled together to stop them following through (a considerable amount).

I'll be thinking of those poor people...

[sbk]

Immigration hit Koh Phangan regularly, and many places are now short staffed because they hired illegal Burmese labor. While its true that many are political refugees I would say the greater number are economic refugees. It is really a pity that their country is such a screwed up mess, it used to be one of the richest in SE Asia, and now these poor people are reduced to scrounging for low paying jobs in bad conditions outside their country, always at the risk of being arrested and deported.

Have to add, that in general even the "legal" Burmese workers usually only have a work permit for fishing so yes, they are working illegally. A chance most of them are willing to take to get a job. And often a poorly paid job at that.

[BigC]

always wondered when this would happen in Kho Tao. My thai wife orders food in thier resturents only to find out the the lady who looks thai cannot speak thai. not saying right or wrong but kho Tao seem to be a hot spot for illegals. considering thier is army check points all the way up to ranong ( the border to burmer ). i always wondered why the police never hit kho Tao.

My point is that it was alays going to happen just a matter of time.

[lazeeboy]

140 arrested another 140 on there way ,you will never stop it

[MSingh]

140 arrested another 140 on there way ,you will never stop it

Correct Lazeeboy.

[Samui Coconut]

140 arrested another 140 on there way ,you will never stop it

Correct Lazeeboy.

140 arrested, 100 out already on bail, 40 new ones arrived already......

[Murdock]

I wonder how many farang Divemasters and Instructors have permits.

[Prasert]

It happens every few months on Koh Tao. This raid was not as bad as the one from last year. Within 3 days most Burmese workers were arrested, in the 2 days after most restaurants and shops closed since they didn't have any staff anymore and 2 days after that the island was as good as empty since the majority of the tourists left.

And the Thai still don't understand why everybody left....

It is indeed a problem, illegal Burmese workers. The other side is that it is almost impossible to get a card for every Burmese employee. There is a quota on the number of permits for Burmese people, so some have permits, others don't. And even those with a permit are always hassled by the police when they're caught having a mobile phone or driving a bike anywhere on the island.

Burmese people come here to work and make money. There's a few rotten apples between them, but the majority simply keeps the island running. The majority of the Thai on Koh Tao have coconut brains, are greedy and too lazy to actually work.

Tourism on Koh Tao runs on Burmese workers and farang running businesses, which is impossible for the Thai to accept.

[mssabai]

I wonder how many farang Divemasters and Instructors have permits.

Round em all up and send them back to Burma too I say!

[ClaudeFeller]

It happens every few months on Koh Tao. This raid was not as bad as the one from last year. Within 3 days most Burmese workers were arrested, in the 2 days after most restaurants and shops closed since they didn't have any staff anymore and 2 days after that the island was as good as empty since the majority of the tourists left.

And the Thai still don't understand why everybody left....

It is indeed a problem, illegal Burmese workers. The other side is that it is almost impossible to get a card for every Burmese employee. There is a quota on the number of permits for Burmese people, so some have permits, others don't. And even those with a permit are always hassled by the police when they're caught having a mobile phone or driving a bike anywhere on the island.

Burmese people come here to work and make money. There's a few rotten apples between them, but the majority simply keeps the island running. The majority of the Thai on Koh Tao have coconut brains, are greedy and too lazy to actually work.

Tourism on Koh Tao runs on Burmese workers and farang running businesses, which is impossible for the Thai to accept.

I went a couple of times to Koh Tao in the last months. As far as I know the two Resorts I had to visit employ Burmese only for construction and maintenance. As Burmese dont speak Thai it must be difficult to let them work with a group of Thais inside the Resort. But for Restaurants and shops you might be right.

How many locals might be on Koh Tao? Maybe 2.000? How many peoples are working? At least 10.000 I guess.

For the rest I

[jaidam]

Another 56 Burmese arrested and deported from Koh Tao today. I hear also 2 Thais were arrested and taken away for employing unlicensed Burmese staff.

[sbk]

How many peoples are working? At least 10.000 I guess.

10,000? Koh Tao is 21 sq km. What does that work out per square km?

According to Wiki

As of 2006 it's official population number is 1382

--that would be registered locals.

[Naam]

So what?

The local policemen are regulary paid for every burmese worker, normally 1.500-2.000 THB per month. Sometimes Surathani police wants their piece of cake and come over to Samui or KPN or Koh Tao. The tariff to release them and to be quiet is 5.000 THB per worker.

The wage of 150-200 THB seems to be low but if you add the extra expenses for the corrupt police they are paid 200-300 THB. And their are better working than the locals.

TIT!

Why pay the police??

if you take them down to the labour office and issue them a proper work permit you pay only 5000baht and they are legal. you can do it as a company or as an individual.

I fail to see why you need to pay the police 2000thb for an ilegal worker when making them legal costs less.

not as a farang, only a Thai national or a thai company doing business can sponsor foreign workers from neighbouring countries.

the problem is that since more than a year no new work permits are issued for Burmese, Laotians and Cambodians. it's already a (rather small) problem to renew the permits of those who possess one.