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Thailand expels 19,000 foreign work



Thailand expels 19,000 foreign workers: senior official

posted at 16:55 hrs (Bangkok time) 

BANGKOK, Feb 16 -- Thailand has expelled 19,000 illegal foreign industrial workers in the first
stage of its drive to free up a million posts for jobless Thais, a top labour ministry official said
Monday. 

But the government has put off plans to begin expelling illegal foreign workers in the fisheries and
agriculture sectors. 

The 19,000, most believed to be from neighbouring Myanmar (Burma), were repatriated in the first
weeks of a push to expel 300,000 illegals by the middle of the year, Labour Minstry Permanent
Secretary Parn Jantrapan said. 

Some 6,000 of the 19,000 posts have already been taken up by Thais as the country battles its
worst-ever economic slump, Parn said. 

Analysts cast doubt on the figure, saying it was highly unlikely that as many as 19,000 foreign
labourers had been expelled in the month since the new work policy was introduced. 

''It would be very dofficult to orchestrate such a major operation so quickly without anybody
noticing very much,'' one foreign analyst said. ''I think this is more of a psychological balm for the
local jobless poulation.'' 

The fishery and agriculture sectors, the biggest employers of illegal workers, will be excluded from
the repatriation drive because the departure of Myanmar citizens would gut these industries, Parn
said. 

Owners of fish farms and wealthy farmers have protested at the plan to expel more than one million
people over the next three years. Jobs in the sectors are held by foreigners only because they do
often gruelling and low-paid work which many Thais would refuse. 

In the southern province of Phuket officials have ordered local employers to make their illegal
workers report to the authorities before their planned expulsion, reports said Monday. 

Some 10,000 illegal foreign workers are believed to be employed in the resort province but only
700 have been repatriated from the area since the new labour policy was introduced last month. 

In Samut Sakhorn province also in the south, 126 Myanmar workers were on Monday sent home
by provincial authorities, national television reported. 

Millions of workers from poorer countries in the region flooded into Thailand during its 1980s and
90s boom years to take advantage of a boom in employment. (AFP)