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BKK POST: February 2, 1998: New way
- Subject: BKK POST: February 2, 1998: New way
- From: suriya@xxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 17:11:00
BKK POST: February 2, 1998: New way to repatriate immigrants
Illegal workers lured through
incentives
Anucha Charoenpho
Immigration police have come up with a new strategy to
encourage legal and illigal immigrants working in the country to
return to their motherlands voluntarily.
Instead of launching drastic crackdowns on illegal workers,
police now use a psychological approach to deal with these alien
workers who entered the country during the time of the
economic boom.
Immigration Police Bureau Commissioner Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai
Wannasathit, who initiated the idea, said immigration police have
been instructed to provide full assistance to alien workers
wanting to return home.
Travel expenses and free meals would be given as incentives to
immigrant workers who expressed their willingness to return to
their countries.
"This new approach is more effective and less costly than other
measures. "In the suppression strategy, we can arrest only illegal
workers, not legal ones. The crackdown does not only consume
time, but also budgets.
After they are arrested, illegal workers will be sent to detention
centres before being repatriated.
"Pending the repatriation, we have to provide free food to these
workers which cost about 45-50 baht a day per person. The
longer they are detained, the more we have to pay. In addition,
we have only a few detention centres which are mostly
jampacked with workers," pointed out the bureau commissioner.
The bureau had sought a 111-million-baht budget from the
government to repatriate foreign workers, but only 50 million
baht were allocated, said Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai.
In the psychological approach, authorities will pay only travel
expenses and free meals on the day workers leave for their
countries.
Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai believed the government's policy to
repatriate 300,000 illegal alien workers within six months would
be achieved soon through the new approach.
To prevent other Burmese immigrants from sneaking through the
country, Pol Lt-Gen Chidchai said he has liaised with
non-governmental organisations, the army and concerned
agencies to help keep a close watch on the movement of human
smuggling gangs.
The Police Region 7, which is responsible for western provinces
bordering Burma, has also been asked to deploy more officials
at border passes to prevent the influx of Burmese into the
country.
More than 800,000 foreign workers - mostly from Burma, Laos,
Cambodia, India, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bangadesh -
have been working legally and illegally in Thailand.
Thailand, suffering from its worst economic downturn in
decades, began a crackdown on illegal workers in November in
an effort to curb skyrocketing unemployment.
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Last Modified: Mon, Feb 2, 1998