Pakistan monsoon death toll rises to 299, including 140 children    Saudi Arabia issues new regulations for food laboratory operations    Saudi Tourism Ministry launches e-service to boost accommodation capacity in Makkah and Madinah for Hajj 1447    Four health colleges rank lowest in 2025 national licensure exam results    SABIC posts $1.41 billion loss in H1 2025 on UK plant closure, restructuring costs    OPEC+ to boost oil output by 547,000 bpd in September    Foreign direct investment nets SR1.9 billion in Saudi stock market for July    Saudi, Iraqi justice ministers sign cooperation agreement in Riyadh    Palestine Red Crescent says Israeli strike on Gaza HQ kills worker, injures three    Saudi defender Saud Abdulhamid joins RC Lens on loan from AS Roma    Riyadh Comedy Festival tickets now on sale for world's biggest stand-up event    Flash floods, landslides kill 8 in northern Vietnam, 3 missing    Canada rejects claims of ongoing arms exports to Israel    Saudi Gazette publishes full text of new foreign property ownership law The law grants non-Saudis broader real estate rights under defined conditions while imposing restrictions in Makkah and Madinah    Sotheby's returns Buddha jewels to India after uproar    Riyadh Film Music Festival returns with live orchestral performances of iconic movie scores    Nissan Formula E Team celebrates a landmark season 11 with proud Saudi sponsor Electromin    Fahad bin Nafel steps down as Al Hilal president after historic six-year run    João Félix unveiled by Al Nassr as €50m move marks bold new chapter in Riyadh    Saudi Arabia approves first Alzheimer's treatment with lecanemab for early-stage patients    Sholay: Bollywood epic roars back to big screen after 50 years with new ending    Ministry launches online booking for slaughterhouses on eve of Eid Al-Adha    Shah Rukh Khan makes Met Gala debut in Sabyasachi    Pakistani star's Bollywood return excites fans and riles far right    Exotic Taif Roses Simulation Performed at Taif Rose Festival    Asian shares mixed Tuesday    Weather Forecast for Tuesday    Saudi Tourism Authority Participates in Arabian Travel Market Exhibition in Dubai    Minister of Industry Announces 50 Investment Opportunities Worth over SAR 96 Billion in Machinery, Equipment Sector    HRH Crown Prince Offers Condolences to Crown Prince of Kuwait on Death of Sheikh Fawaz Salman Abdullah Al-Ali Al-Malek Al-Sabah    HRH Crown Prince Congratulates Santiago Peña on Winning Presidential Election in Paraguay    SDAIA Launches 1st Phase of 'Elevate Program' to Train 1,000 Women on Data, AI    41 Saudi Citizens and 171 Others from Brotherly and Friendly Countries Arrive in Saudi Arabia from Sudan    Saudi Arabia Hosts 1st Meeting of Arab Authorities Controlling Medicines    General Directorate of Narcotics Control Foils Attempt to Smuggle over 5 Million Amphetamine Pills    NAVI Javelins Crowned as Champions of Women's Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) Competitions    Saudi Karate Team Wins Four Medals in World Youth League Championship    Third Edition of FIFA Forward Program Kicks off in Riyadh    Evacuated from Sudan, 187 Nationals from Several Countries Arrive in Jeddah    SPA Documents Thajjud Prayer at Prophet's Mosque in Madinah    SFDA Recommends to Test Blood Sugar at Home Two or Three Hours after Meals    SFDA Offers Various Recommendations for Safe Food Frying    SFDA Provides Five Tips for Using Home Blood Pressure Monitor    SFDA: Instant Soup Contains Large Amounts of Salt    Mawani: New shipping service to connect Jubail Commercial Port to 11 global ports    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Delivers Speech to Pilgrims, Citizens, Residents and Muslims around the World    Sheikh Al-Issa in Arafah's Sermon: Allaah Blessed You by Making It Easy for You to Carry out This Obligation. Thus, Ensure Following the Guidance of Your Prophet    Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques addresses citizens and all Muslims on the occasion of the Holy month of Ramadan    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



Thai economy feels the strain
Published in The Saudi Gazette on 21 - 06 - 2014

SAMUT PRAKARN, Thailand — Lek Numthong, who supplies foreign laborers for construction sites on the fringes of the Thai capital, normally has a truckload of workers eager to make a day's wage. But his pick-up has been all but empty for a week.
Only two Burmese workers are sitting in the back.
About 200,000 Cambodians, a key component of the migrant workforce, have turned tail and gone home. The clumsy rhetoric that apparently precipitated their departure may be the first misstep in the efforts by the generals now running the country to revive an economy battered by months of political turmoil.
“They've scared them,” said Lek. “Almost every Cambodian worker without a permit has fled. Gone.”
Thailand's military seized power last month in a bloodless coup, saying it acted to end half a year of often violent protests that triggered the removal of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, ousted by the army in 2006, was premier for more than five years.
The junta rounded up activists and announced policies with a nationalist tinge it said would “get Thailand back in order”.
Last week, a junta spokeswoman said the army would “arrest and deport illegal migrants”. Unverified stories of Cambodians being beaten, or even killed, spread quickly through fields and construction sites, setting off a rush to the border.
The ministry of labor says about 70 percent of those who have left were in the building and farming sectors. Foremen at building sites, where casual workers earn the equivalent of less than $10 a day, have scrambled to find replacements.
Somchao Tanterdtham, Managing Director at N.C. Housing PCL, a real estate developer, says business has been hit. “I know that around 80 percent to 90 percent of workers have disappeared from some projects,” he said.
But workers from Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, have stayed put. They form the largest group among Thailand's 2.3 million registered foreign laborers.
In Myanmar, newly emerged from nearly five decades of dictatorship and isolation, the labor market offers fewer options than Cambodia and its large garment industry. “Why would I go? There is no job for me in Burma,” said Than Za, as he picked lychees and dumped them in a large basket at an orchard in Rayong, 140 miles (85 miles) southeast of Bangkok.
Since the Cambodians started heading for the border, the military has denied there is any plan to deport migrant workers.
Foreign ministry officials met the Cambodian ambassador and said workers without papers were welcome to return to Thailand — and its better-paid jobs —once their documents were in order.
“Tightening regulations is not aimed at migrants but to punish those who take advantage of them,” Jeerasak Sukhonthachart, the ministry's top official, told Reuters.
Southeast Asia's wealthier economies are heavily reliant on migrant workers from their poorer neighbors. Thailand, the third region's biggest importer of migrant labor after Malaysia and Singapore, has enforced regulations loosely and many workers face exploitation and ill-treatment.
Employers frequently confiscate identification documents to keep unregistered workers from running off and to maintain pay rates below the national minimum wage.
There are no official statistics on the number of undocumented workers in Thailand, but government estimates have put the figure at more than 1 million.
Christian Lewis, of political risk consultants Eurasia Group, said the recent tough talk was lip-service to the ultra-nationalists who are among the coup-makers most ardent supporters, and the effects of the exodus were likely to be shortlived.
“It will probably not see much serious follow-up action since certain sectors of the economy depend so heavily on imported labour,” Lewis said. “I don't see it presenting an outsized risk to stability. It is unlikely to redraw the lines of support for the junta.”
Some employers on the ground remained unfazed. “We rely on technology more than human labor, so the impact should be limited,” said Prasert Marittanaporn, Senior Executive Vice President at CH Karnchang Pcl, one of Thailand's largest construction firms.
At a Bangkok construction site, where more than 1,000 laborers poured cement and perched on the edge of unfinished flats well beyond their means, Cambodian worker Suphan, 42, thought many of his countrymen would return. – Reuters


Clic here to read the story from its source.