Exodus of foreign workers hurts farms, factories
WITH foreign workers from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia steadily returning home to get new documents made as required by the new Royal Decree on Managing the Work of Aliens B.E. 2560 (2017) impact is already being felt in Prachinburi with farm and factory owners hit by labor shortage, INN News said today (July 3).
Ney Sukhprasert, president of the Prachinburi branch of the Chaidan Burapa Farmers Association, said both industrial and agricultural sectors employing foreign workers are in trouble because as soon as this Royal Decree was issued on June 23 it triggered an immediate exodus.
Sugarcane farmers in Wang Tha Chang Subdistrict in Kabin Buri district are suffering because there is no one to work in the fields and they are thinking hard about how to get help in fertilizing and spraying their crops. This also applies to owners of palm and rubber plantations, tapioca farms and those requiring help with general work.
Since the announcement of the decree on June 23 around 200 to 300 Cambodian workers are crossing over back to their own country at Aranyaprathet in Sa Kaew province each day with most traveling through Suwannasorn Highway or Route 33 ( Saraburi–Sa Kaeo) and a checkpoint there found that most of these Cambodian workers are from Bangkok and neighboring provinces, eastern provinces and Prachinburi.
Myanmar workers too are steadily returning home starting June 29 and up to today (July 3) over 20,000 have crossed over at Mae Sot in Tak province.
Myanmar government sent officials to question returnees and found out that some of these illegal workers had to pay Thai officials to return home between Muang Tak and Mae Sot districts.
Thul Win, governor of Myawaddy province, sent a letter through Thai-Myanmar Border Coordination Team to forward to Charoenrit Sanguansat, governor of Tak Province, to resolve this problem and various Thai agencies were ordered to look into this issue but they could not pinpoint where the demand for money took place as there are three to four checkpoints from Muang Tak to Mae Sot.
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Top: A stressed out Prachinburi farmer. Photo: INN News
Inset: Myanmar workers returning home. Photo: INN News
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