The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) yesterday ordered lightning transfers of two senior Labour Ministry officials to inactive posts at the Prime Minister’s Office in its first push to tackle foreign labour exploitation problems.
Employment Department director-general Prawith Khiangphol and Decha Pruekpattanarak, director of the Office of Foreign Workers Administration, were shunted to the PM’s Office.
Deputy permanent secretary for labour Sumet Mahosot was given the additional responsibility of the Department of Employment chief, and the head of the labour office in Chon Buri province, Phichit Nilthongkham, was given the added task as director of the Foreign Workers Administration Office.
The transfer directive was effective immediately. The NCPO explained the transfers were aimed at boosting efficiency in regulating foreign labour and solving foreign labour problems.
On Wednesday, NCPO spokesman Winthai Suvaree said the NCPO had received information that there are rackets exploiting alien labourers, and certain government officials might also be involved.
Col Winthai said the NCPO will step up efforts to crack down on human trafficking rackets and will take care of foreign labourers to ensure their rights are not violated, adding human trafficking has been a perennial problem shaking both foreign confidence and the economy.
The spokesman said anyone with information regarding state officials demanding benefits can contact the NCPO directly so it can take legal action.
Col Winthai also said the NCPO had instructed the Foreign Ministry to offer explanations to Cambodia following reports that eight Cambodians had been killed in traffic accidents during their exodus from Thailand.
Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng placed the blame for the crisis squarely on Bangkok, news reports said on Wednesday.
The minister said that after the military coup in Thailand, military leaders sent illegal Cambodian migrant workers away in a rush without discussing the matter with Cambodia, adding that eight people had been killed in traffic accidents linked to the exodus.
Col Winthai said there was no confirmation of the deaths and the information might have been fabricated by ill intentioned people and employers, who spread rumours resulting in the mass exodus of Cambodian workers over the past few days.
He said the NCPO has asked business operators to be patient, saying it is trying to end the problem of illegal workers in Thailand and regulate the sector, not shut out foreign labour.
Meanwhile, a Labour Ministry source said the Office of Foreign Workers Administration has turned itself into “a company” by covertly setting up a job recruitment company to supply foreign labourers to employers.
Any employers refusing to take in workers from the “nominee” company will be “harassed”, the source said.
The source said that several officials at the ministry had sent complaints to NCPO chief Prayuth Chan-ocha, prompting a probe into the matter.
The source added that job recruitment agencies also have to pay “commissions” to certain officials during procedures to identify foreign workers’ nationalities to ensure the process goes smoothly.
Another source from an NGO dealing with foreign migrant workers said employers and workers have to depend heavily on middlemen, which results in higher costs.
Foreign labourers have been exploited for a long time, although the issue is becoming more complex, the source said, adding that the exploitation occurs at every step of the process from bringing in workers to sending them back to their home countries.
The source said the NCPO should come up with a long-term strategy to address the problem.
Many foreign labourers are preyed upon by human traffickers and job recruitment agents who pocket huge sums of money for jobs that are often not provided or are not what was promised and the workers are abused.
The NCPO’s announcement that it would regulate the foreign labour sector scared Cambodian and Myanmar workers — legal and illegal — and led to an exodus of more than 100,000 Cambodians back home.
The exodus prompted rapid action from the two governments to end rumours that all Cambodians living in Thailand were targets of a crackdown by the junta.
The situation improved yesterday at the two checkpoints in Sa Kaeo and Surin.
About 7,500 Cambodian labourers returned to Cambodia from Aranyaprathet on Wednesday, and only 500 yesterday, the immigration office in Aranyaprathet said.