Thai NCPO to suppress immigration influential groups

BANGKOK, June 21 (TNA) - The army-led National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) is urgently suppressing influential groups engaging in smuggling migrant workers and demanding money from them in exchange for working in Thailand. Thai Army and NCPO Chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha announced the policy during his pre-recorded weekly address, broadcast nationwide on Friday night. General Prayuth said that intelligence reports he had obtained showed that influential groups demanded about 20,000 baht from each migrant worker in neighbouring countries and after they entered into the inner part of Thailand, each migrant worker reportedly paid additional 8,000-10,000 baht to the influential groups plus fee in accordance to the Thai law if they wished to register themselves as legal migrant workers. General Prayuth acknowledged those who do not register are all considered illegal migrant workers and are not entitled to receive welfare in Thailand, while they are probably taken advantages by their employers. The NCPO chief pointed out that violations of human rights could, thus, follow, tarnishing Thailand’s image in the eyes of the international community, and that smuggling of migrant workers into Thailand has also caused many other problems, including crime, diseases, and child labour. According to the NCPO chief, it is, therefore, necessary for the NCPO to step in and lay out regulations in order to ensure that migrant workers receive welfare and to also prevent influential groups or employers from taking advantages of them. The NCPO chief’s remarks were made only hours before the United States issued its annual Trafficking in Persons report, in which Washington downgraded Thailand to “Tier 3”, from Tier 2, and recommended Bangkok to take action. (TNA)