Move to bar pregnant workers
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Labour Minister Phadermchai Sasomsap is mulling a plan to bar migrant workers who are more than three months' pregnant from the country.
The aim of the initiative is to discourage migrant workers from having babies in this country in order to end a misunderstanding that Thailand exploits child labour.
“Children of migrant workers have in fact stayed around factories and sometimes help with their parents’ work, because if they stay at home, they are completely on their own. But some non-governmental organisations have misinterpreted their presence [at work sites] as exploitation,” Phadermchai said.
He said that to protect the image of Thailand, he was seriously considering the plan to require pregnant alien workers to leave.
“I have already asked the Labour Protection and Welfare Department to draft the regulation,” he said. “I will then present the draft to relevant agencies as well as neighbouring countries for consultation.”
The labour minister insisted this was not a violation of human rights.
“The migrant workers can return after they deliver their babies,” he said.
Phadermchai said the presence of migrant workers’ children at factories was one of the reasons that Thailand was still on the United States’ Tier 2 Human Trafficking Watch List.
He said some non-governmental organisations (NGOs) had reported sightings of migrant workers’ children shelling shrimp in Samut Sakhon.
“I would like to ask the NGOs to allow us to explain before reporting these misunderstandings to the International Labour Organisation,” he said.
Phadermchai said his ministry was committed to tackling human trafficking and other labour problems.
“If they report to us, we can check if the problems really exist. If they do exist, we will take action to solve them,” he said.
He vowed to take harsh action against officials involved in human trafficking and exploitation of alien workers.
