On December 29, 2020, Labour Minister Mr. Suchart Chomklin assigned Political Official at the Secretariat Office of the Prime Minister, performing duties at the Ministry of Labour Police General Nantachat Supamongkol and Deputy Permanent Secretary of Labour Mr. Phairoj Chotikasathian, joined as representative advisors and participated in an investigation to suppress and eliminate illegal migrant networks at the Royal Thai Police’s Operation Center. Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, Police General Damrongsak Kittipraphat chaired the meeting. The meeting notified urgent matters of the Royal Thai Police in the case of infected migrant workers who were smuggled into the city illegally. Therefore, they issued an order to appoint a working group to investigate and crackdown on illegal labour networks, to conduct an effective investigation, preventing the spread of Covid-19. The meeting also covered action plans and the establishment of extraction points nationwide were considered of units under the Royal Thai Police. It also acknowledged the performance and proactive guidelines of the working group (arrest warrants, process expansion investigation and report format).
The Ministry of Labour’s representative Police General Nantachat Supamongkol informed the meeting about the Labour Minister’s policies as follows:
1) Proactive inspection in the workplace to screen and search for patients with Covid-19 (insured persons) to control the spread to other people at large. This is under consideration by the Social Security Committee to cover the examination in such cases.
2) Policy to properly bring foreign workers into the system, under the Covid-19 situation. There are guidelines for the management of work of foreigners in the country in two cases, that is if the foreigner has an employer or if they are not working. Relevant departments include the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (Department of Fisheries), which are currently in the process of proposal to the Cabinet.
Finally, the chairperson ordered the working group to create a database from all departments including integrated news sharing. Representatives of the Ministry of Labour provided information on the total number of authorized migrant workers in Thailand, which is 2,526,275, classified into different groups.
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Division of Public Relations
29 December 2020
