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BURMESE WORKERS/THAILAND
- Subject: BURMESE WORKERS/THAILAND
- From: BurmaWatch@xxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 17 Dec 1999 19:35:00
Repatriated Myanmar migrants back to work in Thailand
.c Kyodo News Service
BANGKOK, Dec. 17 (Kyodo) - Thai police raided garment factories in the Mae
Sot district near the Myanmar border Friday and arrested nearly 2,000 illegal
immigrants, many of whom had returned to work only days before after an
earlier roundup, a senior police officer said Friday.
More than 100 Thai police raided 10 garment factories and arrested 1,781
illegal migrants working in the plants, Pol. Maj. Gen. Charnvuth Vacharapuk
said.
He said the illegal workers have been returning since Thailand and Myanmar
reopened their border late last month. The border was closed by Myanmar after
its embassy in Bangkok was stormed by gunmen Oct. 1.
''The returnees have nothing to do at home and came to seek work in Thailand
again, but we have to enforce Thai laws and the government's policy...of
arresting and deporting them,'' he said.
Managers of the factories were also arrested in Friday's raid, a departure
from earlier sweeps that netted only illegal workers, Charnvuth said.
Employers of illegal foreign workers face up to 3 years in prison, fines of
up to 60,000 baht (1,561 dollars) or both, according to the 1979 Alien Worker
Law.
Thailand has repatriated about 1 million illegal immigrants from neighboring
countries since it launched a campaign against illegal workers Nov. 3 to open
jobs for Thailand's 1.4 million unemployed.
The Thai government, however, allows about 106,000 unskilled workers from
Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar to work in 37 provinces in 18 labor-strapped
sectors, including agriculture, fisheries, construction and mining. Their
permits are valid until Aug. 5 next year.
AP-NY-12-17-99 0726EST