Bids to save Thai fishermen overseas

BANGKOK, October 10 (TNA) - The Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working together with other agencies concerned to find ways to help Thai fishermen facing troubles or having been lured to work in Indonesia to return home safely. The ministry's Department of Consular on Thursday called a meeting with several concerned agencies, including the Ministries of Labour and Social Development and Human Security, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives' Department of Fisheries, the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association and non-governmental organisations NGOs), to discuss ways to assist the troubled Thai fishermen to return home. Department of Consular Director-General Thongchai Chasawasth told a press conference after the meeting that the concerned agencies have agreed there is a need to help the troubled Thai fishermen in Indonesia, in which they can return home by ship as the government will first provide them with a financial support of 30,000 baht each as travel and other necessary expenses and they have to later pay back. Thongchai said, however, that the Thai fishermen must inform their willingness to return to Thailand to immigration offices in areas where they stay so that the offices will inform the Thai Embassy in Jakarta. Thongchai stated that for those who were lured to work in Indonesia and were victims of human trafficking, they will be sent back to Thailand by air only for their own safety. According to the senior official, the Thai government has saved six Thai fishermen and they arrived home on October 1, while planning to save another four and to send them home soon. The senior official noted that 11 more Thai fishermen have been interviewed and asked whether they wished to return to Thailand and it is expected that the rest of some 35 fishermen in Indonesia remain in trouble. Officials of the Thai Embassy to Indonesia and those of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security are, meanwhile, probing on the number of Thai fishermen being left in the neighbouring country. Wiriya Sirichai-ekawat, President of the Thai Overseas Fisheries Association, told journalists that his association will seek assistance from the Thai Embassy in Jakarta if it is found that more Thai fishermen are left in Indonesia. (TNA)