BKK POST: February 2, 1998: New way

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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