NCPO:Thailand does not wipe out migrant workers

BANGKOK, June 16 (TNA) - Amid a continual exodus of migrant workers from Thailand, the army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) has denied reports that it plans to wipe out them out of the country. NCPO Deputy Spokesman Colonel Winthai Suvaree told journalists on Monday that local business operators who employ migrant workers can continue with their businesses. Colonel Winthai suggested that the local business operators maintain order among their employees, noting that migrant labor-related problems have accumulated for a decade and the NCPO only wants all migrant workers to be registered and work legally without having to hide from authorities. Colonel Winthai insisted that humanitarianism and international standard are observed, which are beneficial to both local business operators and migrant workers who will, among others, receive adequate health services and enjoy health standard. The deputy spokesman also acknowledged that the NCPO is taking rational and realistic actions to support economic growth, national interest and sustainability, with problems needed to be urgently handled including child labor, human trafficking and corrupt officials and brokers. According to the deputy spokesman, solutions to the problems will be focus on workers in local fishing, textile and sugarcane businesses where protection has been difficult. Meanwhile, more than 2,000 Cambodian workers queued up at the immigration checkpoint in Aranyaprathet District of Sa Kaeo Province in the Thai East, bordering Cambodia, to return to their home country. Thai authorities have deployed trucks to carry the migrant workers across the border to the Cambodian town of Poipet. Since June 1, 2014, Thai authorities have sent more than 70,000 Cambodian workers from Sa Kaeo to Poipet.(TNA)