Thai berry-pickers file complaint with DSI

BANGKOK, October 7 (TNA) - Over 200 Thai workers have submitted a written complaint with the Department of Special Investigation (DSI), calling for the department to take action against a Thai employment brokerage firm, after there were not enough berry-picking jobs provided for them in Sweden as previously guaranteed. The troubled Thai workers handed their complaint to DSI Director-General Tharit Pengdit in Bangkok on Monday. A representative of the Thai berry-picking workers, Somsak Samerthap, told reporters that there were about 500 Thai berry-pickers in Sweden during July 24–September 27, 2013 and all of them paid the employment firm, M Phoenix Enterprise Company, located in Thailand's northeastern Chaiyaphum Province, at least 80,000 baht each for a recruitment fee, causing many of them to have become indebted, as there were later not enough work for them in Sweden or their wages fell short of their expenses, including accommodation, food and gas, and even loans they made before flying to Sweden. The Thai workers, mostly are from the Thai Northeast, requested the DSI to probe the Chaiyaphum-based recruitment firm to see whether its business operations are legal. (TNA)