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Migrant children as young as 11 found working in factories in Tak province
THE NATION

BANGKOK: -- AT LEAST THREE textile and electronics factories in the western province of Tak were found to be using immigrant child labourers aged under 15, according to Labour Ministry official Peerapat Pornsirilertkit.

The Labour Protection Act of 1998 prohibits the hiring of minors under 15, and offenders face up to a year in jail and/or a Bt200,000 fine.

Peerapat told a Bangkok seminar that the first national plan to combat the worst form of child labour would be concluded soon. The results would be analysed to formulate a policy and a second national plan for fiscal years 2015-2020.

So far, the department had assigned two special task-force teams - comprising soldiers and officials - to solve child-labour issues, he said.

They found that at least three Tak factories had hired children from Myanmar aged 11-14. Two textile factories had hired two underage kids and an electronic-parts factory three kids, he said. Officials were also watching two other suspect factories.

Peerapat leads the ministry's Department of Labour, Protection and Welfare. He said the department was considering asking for Bt10 million from the government to conduct a survey of the number of child labourers and create a database for clearer information to explain to officials in the United States.

In related news, Noppadon Kannika, an adviser to the labour minister, affirmed that the ministry would ensure that illegal foreign labourers were protected from human trafficking and paid compensation by their employers in accordance with the Bt300 minimum wage before they were repatriated.

A Labour Ministry-led integrated task force to prevent problems of illegal foreign labourers and human trafficking within the Bangkok area recently found 67 illegal Cambodian workers at a construction site near Bang Pho Police Station, Noppadon said.

"Of these workers, 52 had only personal-document copies and no work permits, while 11 had no work permits or personal documents, and four others were found to be working in a wrong field," he said.

"By law, employers must return original personal documents to all foreign workers, and provide compensation in accordance with the Bt300 minimum wage. From this batch, 15 Cambodian workers will be sent to their home country.

"The ministry will ensure their safe passage home along with their wages, under the direction of the 'Protect, Pay, and Bring Them Home' policy, whereby foreign workers of all nationalities are treated equally," he said.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Migrant-children-as-young-as-11-found-working-in-f-30254239.html

-- The Nation 2015-02-17

[kaorop]

"The ministry will ensure their safe passage home along with their wages, under the direction of the 'Protect, Pay, and Bring Them Home' policy, whereby foreign workers of all nationalities are treated equally," he said.

that go for farang to?

awh yeah forgot

some are more equal than others

[JAG]

Any prosecutions or convictions?

How long will they "watch" the suspect factories for?

Child labour is a foul stain on this country, and nothing is really being done about it.

Now if it was deckchairs and umbrellas on Phukets beaches. ...

[ChrisY1]

The disgusting practice of using child enforced labour continues here in Thailand......even one child being made to work in these establishments, is disgraceful!

Good for the authorities to find these kids........

Hopefully, there will be prosecutions for the factory owners and management........

[thesetat2013]

What about the men and companies that hired these little kids? Dont they need to show some responsibility and have some punishments meeted out to them? They are the ones who should be suffering the consequences. Instead they are just made to pay the workers minimum wages and let go of the kids to be deported. Unfair justice in this case. It should be criminal to the farce that apprehended these little kids yet did nothing to the company owners and supervisors.

[chainarong]

Sad reflection on a country so full of great people with the few staining the landscape for that dollar and only last week the news announcement that Thailand was on top of Human rights issues, just like other issues Thailand is at the cross roads , I don't hold much hope.

[chooka]

"The ministry will ensure their safe passage home along with their wages, under the direction of the 'Protect, Pay, and Bring Them Home' policy, whereby foreign workers of all nationalities are treated equally," he said.

that go for farang to?

awh yeah forgot

some are more equal than others

Bread eaters? Sub class so, sorry.

[MaxLee]

1 year jail OR 200,000 Baht fine,.... says it all in the lawless land of smiles...

[BKKdreaming]

If the USA pushing Thailand to clean up its act as far as trafficing and child labor made this happen then

I do not know how much the Junta knew about what a mess they took over , but any Press about this will help

JAIL will also help for the Factory owners.....yeah I know ....Fat Chance

[maidee]

no fines for the company owerns, right ? they did not know

[BritTim]

I am going to be attacked mercilessly for this post, but it needs to be said.

People commonly react to an imperfect situation with proposed solutions that make things worse for everyone involved.

First, let me say that I firmly agree that 11, 12 even 15-year-old kids should be in school, not working. How are the actions described in the OP, or the suggested supplemental actions of the replies in this thread going to achieve that? All that is going to happen is that the kids will be back in their destitute homes in Burma earning much less than they were in the factory in Thailand. Yes, that is terrible, but it is the reality.

There are no easy solutions. The Myanmar authorities are not quickly going to solve the economic realities that make poor Burmese families reliant on their kids' earnings to eat. NGOs may help in some cases, but their resources are limited. Well-intentioned individuals may be able to help a few families, but cannot help everyone.

The laws on this are correct. Ideally, they should be enforced intelligently in an attempt to minimize harm. That is, action should be taken when preventing the kids from working and repatriating them is going to improve their condition. In practice, as most posters here well know, enforcement is going to rely on the factories' contacts and willingness to pay police and officials for protection against enforcement.

This is all so depressing.

[Maesotthailand]

disgusting!!

Factories need to be responsible too, don't hire. if can't verify, don't hire, if in doubt, don't hire!!! There is such a huge labor base in Mae Sot and Tak, and only if you are looking to be illegal would you hire unregistered labor which would be more likely to be underage.

If you only hired legal registered workforce, 99.9% of this problem and all other problems would be solved.

it is soooooooo sad to see abuse still happening to this day. I spend a lot of time up here and the ignorance never fails to amaze me.

Stop taking kick backs, stop taking protection, stop accepting kick backs, stop acceptation protection, protect the people and the laws not the owners and the officials pockets.

lead by example, walk the walk and talk the talk!! Corruption does not work.

I wish they would really crack down on this without a way out... only jail time!!

[Sviss Geez]

"The ministry will ensure their safe passage home along with their wages, under the direction of the 'Protect, Pay, and Bring Them Home' policy, whereby foreign workers of all nationalities are treated equally," he said.

that go for farang to?

awh yeah forgot

some are more equal than others

Of course it does, if farangs don't have personal documentation i.e. passports or work permits they will be prosecuted and safely deported also. And if you were in the unlikely situation of working somewhere that paid less than the minimum 300 per day due to exploitation by your employer you would be compensated.

[Sviss Geez]

What about the men and companies that hired these little kids? Dont they need to show some responsibility and have some punishments meeted out to them? They are the ones who should be suffering the consequences. Instead they are just made to pay the workers minimum wages and let go of the kids to be deported. Unfair justice in this case. It should be criminal to the farce that apprehended these little kids yet did nothing to the company owners and supervisors.

Read the 2nd paragraph of the OP

[Thaimaishoe]

Lets face it, paying what you owe IF you are caught is no disincentive, its window dressing. Even the paltry 200k OR year in jail (maybe, if you can't buy your way out for much less) is no impediment.

A significant disincentive must be put in place:

First offence, you must pay an auditor full salary (as a percentage of revenue) to oversee your operation for 10 years. The auditor may be either the person that reported the violation, or if it was just a random police enforcement action, the auditor can be appointed by the court/police. The business owner may NOT be his own auditor, anyone finding this situation is immediately installed as business owner.

Second offence, Whomever reports the child labor is awarded ownership of the company employing the child labor. do not pass go, do not collect 200B, again the owner can not be the reporter, if he is, a new owner is selected by the courts.

I'm sure there are ways to corrupt what I have set out here, but the bigger idea is to put in place massive losses for violating the law, while at the same time putting in place incentives to report and enforce the law.

[HiSoLowSoNoSo]

I started working when I was 10 part time to deliver groceries for 30 cent an hour and was happy to make some money to save for a bicycle, but I think child enforced labour is very bad and Thailand deserves all kinds of sanctions from the outside world if this is not stopped.

[Toknarok]

I feel sorry for these poor kids. What chance in life have they got, having to go to a foreign country at that age to survive. That's what over 20 years of Junta rule in Burma gets you.

[Loles]

It's disgusting, shame and scandal.

200.000 B or 1 year in jail ?????????????????????

I may understand why do that those greedy people.

[ratcatcher]

"Migrant children as young as 11 found working in factories in Tak province"

Charles Dickens........................"We had this problem in England 200 years ago with the workhouses, but that was then and this is 2015. "

[elgordo38]

Any prosecutions or convictions?

How long will they "watch" the suspect factories for?

Child labour is a foul stain on this country, and nothing is really being done about it.

Now if it was deckchairs and umbrellas on Phukets beaches. ...

The penalties are not strong enough put the CEO in jail for 5 years. No reduction of time for good behavior. Fine the company 10 million bahts and the CEO the same and this will stop guaranteed.

[phrisco17]

The disgusting practice of using child enforced labour continues here in Thailand......even one child being made to work in these establishments, is disgraceful!

Good for the authorities to find these kids........

Hopefully, there will be prosecutions for the factory owners and management........

500 B fine + tea money!

[John Kane]

A little less crying over trafficking as a criminal justice issue and more understanding of trafficking as a migration / population issue will be better in the long run. The real problem is a world population that will reach 8 billion by 2020 - and fewer unskilled jobs than ever before. Some families survive based on whomever can find some work will work. These workers under 18 might be orphans or have escaped - yes escaped - from a refugee camp. The factory owners / managers may have been kind in their own way by supplying some food and not expected a lot of physical labor. We don't know. We have to be careful to fully understand what is happening in each case. In the future we all face there will likely be many unusual arrangements that may appear horrible or look like slavery to the kind hearted suburban do gooders who have never missed a meal. But what looks horrible to some might be the best people can find for themselves in the poorest outposts around the world. While first world suburban housewives pitch in to save "victims" though NGOs and American demands, a rich history already exists of poor people being sent back to situations far worse than they were "rescued" from. The real story of trafficking is highly exaggerated and even distorted. Trafficking laws, like visas and fences, are used as a way to control people. Those people could some day be us!

[ddavidovsky]

Child labour: the definition of third world.

[Bob L]

1 year jail OR 200,000 Baht fine,.... says it all in the lawless land of smiles...

How about 2,000,000 bt fine for the first offense and 10 years in prison for a second one !

[FredNL]

As a owner of several companies I can tell you the following.

- At our manufacturing site (Samut Prakan), we are receiving offers to hire cheap foreign workers about daily. The offers are so cheap that they're cheaper than using electricy for machines. The foreigners don't speak any English and mostly come from Cambodia, Vietnam, Myanmar. They are being offered by police officers and if we accepted, we would have paid the police their wages. The police would pay those foreigners. Yes, the Thai police are offering also kids from 6 - 15 years old from the mentioned countries. Even mothers with babies, saying babies could work too. So who is corrupt??? We just keep on using machines that do better work and are more accurate than hiring any workers from anyThai Authority.

- And yes, we have been out of power several times for days. Powerlines (all 3) were "burned" (cut) between 6 PM- 8 AM. Electric company could not repair and had to change all 3 lines to our building. It takes them 5 days to cover a distance of 8 meters, yeah sure.... Naturally we had to pay the electric company for thicker lines. (always the same size as before) We have several hunderd meters available, all 8 meters long. And they never just can reconnect the cable. It always has to be replaced by a new one. Police then comes by several times per day offering us cheap workers. As our computers and server were also down, we didn't know what we would prpduce. As we told this to the police, they had a good idea just to make more stock. (but where to stock the extra stock from a week on over 10,000 different products ???)

- It occurs about once per month that a (empty) container is blocking our entrance. As always they put it there on Sunday when we don't work. Last Monday too. Security of the business park never sees where the container comes from because it's too dark at night and CCTV recording is not for false parking. Right now at our own premises we have one parked and we're waiting till someone claims it. Probably local police will come to collect a fine or charge someone at the company for theft. (happened before, so we're just waiting till Friday)

- One of my best friends is having problems with getting Thai workers. Thai want to make money but don't want to work for it and want to get paid in cash every day. He can't get enough men for loading and unloading his trucks. He is not hiring any kids but 98% are foreigners. He is paying the local police 5,000 THB per foreign worker per month for "paper" work.

We just keep doing business on a legit way.

I really think that the owners of those factories just forgot to pay some one or didn't use the local employment agency, run by the local police. That is how you (Thai) do business in Thailand !!!

Edited February 17, 2015 by FredNL

[FangFerang]

So these sophisticated sleuths went under cover of darkness and masks and discovered -- oh, wow, only five underage workers here. Look, everyone, no human trafficking problem here, either, just like the fisheries showed no unseen victims.

Well, the rest of the world will immediately bump Thailand from Tier 3, squatting beside North Korea, and declare them a model nation for fairness and healthy practices for their foriegn labor force....

Insert elephantine snicker here...

[NickJ]

America.....pushing for what??? Hello this is the Marianna Islands calling....can we speak to Tom Delay.

[Chang_paarp]

Oh dear.

Just in time for the data collection for the next TIP report. Keep this up and Thailand will stay on level 3.

[bronco10250]

Its a disgrace.... but sooooo typical for this country's business men attitude! Would appreciate if the intern community would add a type 'Tier T' as indication for 'absolute disgusting, nobody is allowed to do business with, or buying from countries'!

[mango66]

10 years of jail or 1.000,- thb fine, desided by the offender ;