Phuket Task Force Formed To Blitz Illegal Workers

[george]

Task force formed to blitz illegal labor

PHUKET: -- A task force of about 50 officers has been set up to crack down on illegal labor in Phuket.

Phuket Provincial Employment Services Office (PESO) Chief Boonchock Maneechot announced the crackdown following a closed meeting last Thursday with Phuket Governor Udomsak Uswarangkura and new the Phuket Provincial Immigration Office (PPIO) Superintendent, Pol Col Prayut Chommalee.

K. Boonchock cited poor sanitary conditions at workers’ camps and the increasing violence among illegal workers as the two main reasons for the crackdown.

“When officers have visited the camps where foreign laborers live, they have seen that the workers live in poor sanitary conditions,” he said.

“We are looking at issuing warnings to employers if conditions at workers’ camps are not satisfactory.”

K. Boonchock said that Phuket has 23,308 registered alien workers, but he estimated that about 30,000 illegal aliens are working on the island. He explained that the huge number of illegal laborers was mainly the result of employers importing them from other provinces, chiefly Ranong.

To help solve the problems, K. Boonchock explained, the Labor Ministry in Bangkok is considering introducing another amnesty for illegal laborers to register – a period of amnesty was offered last year – and making health checks on foreign laborers arriving from other provinces mandatory.

“Phuket right now has many problems with Burmese. For example, there are Ya Khai Burmese minority group workers from Phang Nga who are now in Phuket. The Ya Khai in particular are violent, and often kill each other over disputes,” K. Boonchock said.

He warned that some employers registered laborers in one province but then moved them to another province without registering the movement. This automatically – and immediately – meant the laborers were working illegally.

“If employers need to move laborers to another province, they must tell the PESO in their province and ask permission to do so,” he said.

In response to the Governor’s request for a solution to the problems, K. Boonchock told the Gazette, he will suggest using the Governors Act of 1914, which gives provincial governors the power to arrest, control and punish in matters concerning illegal labor.

To use this power, a Governor must first obtain permission from the Interior Ministry.

--TNA 2005-12-13

[khall64au]

The pay scales and living conditions of most Burmese labourers on Phuket equate to slave labour. If the majority are registered, why are they paid so lowly? They are forced to live in absolute squalor.

[britmaveric]

Another crackdown?

[sonthaya]

Then who is going to do all the dirty work for a few bath a day

[cyberak]

- - soft editor naughty but nice Nick Davies slipped into the place of the killer kangaroo Chris Husted after Phuket Gazette ex-Editor Chris Husted exposed Thai government involvement in Burma Labor Mafia on Phuket Island

Child Labor in Phuket shames Junta

PHUKET: Burmese daily newspaper True News was ordered by the Press Scrutiny and Registration Board of Myanmar to suspend publication for two months, following its publication on September 30 of a large image depicting a Burmese child working on a construction site in Phuket.

Mr Yeni, News Editor at The Irrawaddy, told the Gazette that, "An anonymous freelancer in Rangoon told us that the censorship board has ordered True News to suspend publication for two months due to a front page photograph that ran a caption reading: 'A Burmese child working on a construction site in Phuket, Thailand'. Apparently the editors of True News were found guilty of not sending clear draft layouts to the Press Scrutiny Board.

"Another Rangoon source said that True News had submitted the layouts, but the Board failed to censor the photo. Major Tint Swe, head of the censorship board, was then reportedly scolded by Information Minister Kyaw Hsan for the oversight," said Mr Yeni.

"The editors and reporters of True News are now afraid to give interviews with anyone outside Myanmar. We are unable to find out where, exactly, the construction site is in Phuket. We are very interested in covering stories about Burmese migrants in Phuket.

"The Junta are paranoid and strange. The Burmese regime is not like any other government; they focus only on how to control media, especially when they work with journalists outside Myanmar. With the exploitation of child laborers, the Junta feel that they have been exposed for lacking care for their own citizens. Later this year we plan to visit Phuket ourselves," he added.

There will be a lot for them to report on here.

The plight of Burmese workers in Phuket is well known to island residents. They are commonly seen huddled into the back of trucks and at squalid workers' camps across the island. The camps have mushroomed on the back of a real estate boom driven largely by foreign investment in recent years.

The situation made international headlines earlier this year when 54 unregistered workers suffocated in the back of a truck in Ranong while en route to a construction site in Phuket.

A crackdown followed, and on June 11 former Kathu policeman Decho Kaewnabon was gunned down in front of his Patong home in a murder that remains unsolved.

Decho, dismissed from the force for involvement in Burmese labor rings, allegedly continued in the business. His murder is widely seen as a silencing killing ordered by other influential traffickers.

There have also been numerous extortion attempts made against Burmese workers and those who employ them, often by people posing as government officials.

One registered Burmese worker who resisted an extortion attempt was shot in the face and killed in Kathu on March 30. Although there were many witnesses, that case also remains unsolved.

The Thai government are sure to clamp down on the Phuket Administration. Worapoj Ratsima acting as governor after Niran Kalayanamitr left signed an order for the labor department to investigate the Phuket Gazette and oust the Chief Reporter after days after this article appeared in print.

Even though there are illegal aliens and tens of thousands of burmese laborers without proper documents the Phuket labor office led by Nattaya Anudit (C8) and Janya Yingyong (C6) chose to investigate the Phuket Gazette. The complaint came from the Reporters Club of Phuket which was shamed for never reporting the truth about illegal aliens on the island. Burmese girls work as prostitutes desguised all over the island, they sell illegal DVDs, CDs and designer goods. They work as maids, cleaners as well as on international construction sites all over the island.

Thai reporters on the island are too afraid to report about these issues and have lost a lot of face since the Gazette exposed the truth about Phuket's Labor Mafia that involves government officers from Town Hall all the way to the Labor Department of the Thai government.

A complaint was filed at town hall and signed by Worapoj Ratsima claiming that John Magee's was "a danger to Thailand's Internal Security" amongst other allegations followed by raids by the Labor Department on the Phuket Gazette.

During the raids led by Nataya Anudit, Janya Yingyong told reporters " I am bigger than the police" and asked them questions like "are you afraid?"

Most of Phuket's reporters are just there for the free food and drink. Many complaints have been submitted to Town Hall but it is suspicious how they disappear suggesting heavy blatant corruption, laziness or both in the Phuket administration.

Gazette staff said that Nataya has now been transferred to Phang Nga and Janya has had a change of duties after she visited the Phuket Gazette with her large handbag, the new Governor Preecha Ruangjan is expected to announce the results of the investigations into the allegations made against the Gazette in the near future.

[sassienie]

A task force of about 50 officers has been set up to crack down on illegal labour in Phuket.

All this effort for the sake of 30000 illegal Burmese workers, who I’m sure their Thai and some Farang masters are earning well off the backs of these people.

What about the illegal Farang workers in Thailand, why not set up a special task force to evict them out of the country?

Or is this because many have enough money to pay off the appropriate authorities and of course it’s easy for them to slip in and out of Thailand on visa runs or without visas at all.

[HorseDoctor]

So where is Mr. Husted now? Did he have to leave Thailand for his health?And how does T Land get away with incarcerating Burmese workeres, and restricting their travel. I believe they are forbidden to own cell phones too.

Oh yeah a wonderful place ...

[HorseDoctor]

A task force of about 50 officers has been set up to crack down on illegal labour in Phuket.

All this effort for the sake of 30000 illegal Burmese workers, who I'm sure their Thai and some Farang masters are earning well off the backs of these people.

What about the illegal Farang workers in Thailand, why not set up a special task force to evict them out of the country?

Or is this because many have enough money to pay off the appropriate authorities and of course it's easy for them to slip in and out of Thailand on visa runs or without visas at all.

Wasn't there a poll recently where a majority of Thai felt corruption was OK as long as it served their purposes?

As for easy to slip in and out of Thailand, you must be Thai to believe that- This place is all set up tp pressure " Whitey" to marry Thai woman, business laws, immigration - all set up to put it all in her name ( western women don't seem to have need this scenario ) you see the backbends and hoop jumping at the Imm office from the Sex Pats just desparate, clinging to residency for fear they'll have to return to their homelands.

[JiveTalker]

Same old.

Arrest the Burmese, shake them down for a few Baht, but conveniently forget to punish the companies exploiting them.