The Labour Minister formed measures to support illegal Thai workers in South Korea on return to Thailand and has set up support centers at both Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi Airports to facilitate the travel back from South Korea. Job vacancies have been prepared both in the country and abroad to support over one hundred thousand workers. The ministry will work on improving efficiency of assigning legal new worker groups, in and work with all sectors to monitor violation of the law and penalize any illegal actions.
On October 18, 2018, Labour Minister H.E. Police General Adul Sangsingkeo chaired the meeting to consult protection and resolution measures for deceived Thai workers into South Korea, which took place at the Nikom Chandravithun Conference Room on the 5th floor of the Ministry of Labour. Relevant stakeholders also took part in the meeting such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Royal Thai Police, the Immigration Bureau, the Embassy of South Korea to Thailand, HRD Korea and the Association of Thai Travel Agents. The Minister of Labour said that he had invited concerned agencies to discuss ways to prevent and solve the problem of Thai workers being deceived and smuggled to work in South Korea, to listen to feedback, guidelines, implementation and recommendations to prepare for the Thai people returning from South Korea and to expand the labour market.
Pol.Gen. Adul continued that the Ministry of Labour had formed 3 measures to prevent and resolve the problems of deceived Thai workers into South Korea. They were: 1) Measures to support workers on voluntary return to Thailand provided by relevant agencies and instilling confidence among those workers through the establishment of a labour support center in South Korea and at immigration points in both Don Muang and Suvarnabhumi Airports by next week. This would be coupled with efforts to promote awareness of the center among Thai workers in South Korea. Furthermore, recruitment centers would be setup for jobs in Thailand and abroad with the provision of Korean language skills training for workers returning, which would be available at all Department of Employment Offices nationwide, including the preparation of 62,174 domestic job vacancies and 45,000 abroad.
In addition, was 2) Measures to optimize the delivery of Thai workers South Korea legally by requesting an increase in quotas under the EPS program from 5,000 to 15,000, and to increase the maximum age from 39 years to not more than 45 years. The ministry would also ask for an increase in the ratio of female workers and work duration in South Korea from 9 years and 8 months to 14 years (4 years and 8 months at a time, and 3 return trips) and to reduce the process of criminal history checks and 3) Measures to prevent smuggling workers to South Korea in cooperation with the Immigration Bureau, the Ministry of Tourism and Sports, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Association of Thai Travel Agents, airlines and the Anti-Money Laundering Office to monitor fraud activities in social media and gather evidence for legal action. This measure also includes increasing staff at airport checkpoints to be able to provide more thorough supervision.
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Division of Public Relations/
Information by Department of Employment/
Photos by Sompop Silbut/
October 18, 2018
