On March 3, 2023, at 15.00 hours, the Ministry of Labour’s Inspector-General, Mrs. Tongjai Suthat Na Ayutthaya, and heads of government agencies under the Ministry of Labour in Buriram visited Buriram Province to inspect business establishments that employ foreigners to work, to monitor and protect the rights of foreign workers ensuring equal treatment with Thai workers. Director of Pornprasert Farm Co., Ltd., Mr. Apisak Angkhasit, the Ministry of Labour’s executives, and heads of government agencies under the Ministry of Labour in Buriram, gave a welcome at Pornprasert Farm Co., Ltd. The company is in the agriculture and livestock business at No. 49, Moo 14, Ban Prue Subdistrict, Krasang District, Buriram Province. There are 231 employees, 118 Thai workers, and 113 foreign.
Mrs. Tongjai said that the government under the leadership of the Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, General Prayuth Chan-ocha, and the Ministry of Labour by the Labour Minister Mr. Suchart Chomklin, gives importance to managing Cambodian, Laotian, Myanmar, and Vietnamese workers, concerning national security and the safety of Thai people. The visit to Buriram today was to monitor the implementation of the preliminary screening of forced labour or services and labour trafficking in foreign workers, following the Screening Operational Procedure (SOP) Ror.Bor. 1 according to the national referral mechanism. The objective is to monitor the operations of the labour protection inspection and preliminary screening to identify people with reasonable suspicion of being victims of labour exploitation, forced labour, or human trafficking among migrant workers. It also monitors the preliminary screening report from applying the operational standards and form Ror.Bor. 1 to seek indications for persons who have reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be victims of labour exploitation, forced labour, or human trafficking, to be effective and following the NRM, as well as to acknowledge the problems, obstacles, processes, methods of labour protection inspections and preliminary screening to identify people who who have reasonable grounds to suspect that they may be victims of labour exploitation.
On the same occasion, Mrs. Tongjai also chaired an audit meeting on the implementation of preliminary screening for forced labour or services, and labor trafficking in foreign workers, following the Screening Operational Procedure (SOP) according to the national referral mechanism. The meeting took place at the Faikham Meeting Room, 3rd floor, Buriram City Hall. She urged government agencies under the Ministry of Labour in Buriram Province to work with companies in protecting the rights of migrant workers to be treated equally to Thai workers, such as minimum wages, medical treatment, and social security. The efforts aim to ensure that employees receive welfare from companies fairly to prevent the worst forms of human trafficking, which may pull Thailand’s human trafficking ranking lower.
Buriram Province has 2,589 foreign workers of three nationalities permitted to work under The Royal Decree on the Management of Foreign Workers’ Work. There are 1,295 Cambodian workers, 478 Laotian workers, and 816 Myanmar workers.
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Division of Public Relations
