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» 04.09.09 Phuket Immigration sweep nets 42 foreign workers |
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04.09.09 Phuket Immigration sweep nets 42 foreign workers
Some of the workers arrested and held at Phuket Immigration headquarters in Saphan Hin last night.
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KARON,
PHUKET: Forty-two foreign workers were arrested during an Immigration
police raid on vendor stalls in Karon early last night.
Phuket
Immigration Police Superintendent Col Chanatpol Yongbunjerd said the
arrests were part of an ongoing crackdown on alien workers violating
the terms of their work visas by engaging in work, such as retail
sales, that is restricted to Thai nationals.
The crackdown follows a campaign which aimed to see all alien workers become legally registered with the authorities.
“Now
that the alien worker registration campaign has ended, we have to
strictly examine all alien workers on the island, especially at entry
points like piers and the Tah Chat Chai road checkpoint.
“We
will check to make sure they are properly registered and that the work
they actually do matches that specified in their work visas. We will
make these checks continually from now on,” Col Chanatpol said.
Under
the ‘work visa’ program, Thais may employ qualified nationals from
Burma, Laos and Cambodia to work in six different categories of
low-wage labor, such as fishing and rubber tapping.
In an effort to legalize thousands of its citizens working illegally in Thailand, the Burmese government in July opened ‘citizen identification centers’
at three immigration checkpoints along the Thai border to issue ‘work
passports’ for its nationals, who could then re-enter the country and
work legally after having a 2,000-baht ‘work visa’ issued by the Thai
authorities.
Arrested at vending stalls in Karon in a sweep that
began at 7pm, the aliens – 30 males and 12 females – were taken to
Phuket Immigration headquarters at Saphan Hin for further examination
and processing.
“All of those arrested claimed to be Burmese,
but we have to check to see if that is true or not. A document check
revealed that some were actually Nepalese,” Col Chanatpol said.
“If
they have the correct documents, we will let them go. However, any
illegal aliens will be prosecuted, repatriated to their home countries
and blacklisted so that they can never enter Thailand again,” he said.
The Immigration crackdown will now continue in other parts of Phuket, he said.
“I can not say what area we will target next, but officers have to arrest them nicely, without resorting to violence,” he added.
However,
a crowd of some 30 employers and relatives who gathered in front of the
detention area at Phuket Immigration complained that police had used
violence in taking the suspects in.
“Some of them got kicked and
punched. Even though we presented police with all the right documents
to prove that they were legal, they still went ahead and arrested
them,” one employer told the Gazette.
Some employers
showed the media work passes issued by the Burmese regime together with
passports and other documents in an effort to show that those arrested
were working legally.
When the examination process concluded after midnight, Col Chanatpol told the Gazette
that 32 of those arrested – 23 males and 9 females – were working in
retail sales; not sewing, as was specified on their work permits.
Retail sales is a profession restricted to Thai nationals under the law, he said.
Col
Chanatpol also revealed that Phuket Immigration is working with
international law enforcement bodies to investigate transnational crime
rings working on the island.
“There are definitely some in Phuket. We continually review lists of wanted criminals supplied by these agencies,” he said.
Source: Phuketgazette, 04.09.09
http://www.phuketgazette.net/news/index.asp?id=7734
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