Migrant workers' kids monitored
The provincial offices of the Department of Welfare and Labour Protection have been instructed to survey migrant workers wishing to send their children back home and coordinate with agencies or organisations to accommodate them.
Migrant children remaining in Thailand will be sent to nursery or school so they do not have to hang around at their parents’ workplace and allowing people to think businesses were hiring minors, Pakorn Amornchewin, the department’s director-general, said yesterday.
The department has also been urged to crackdown on employers deducting fees from their workers’ wages by penalising them with up to six months in prison and/or up to Bt100,000 in fine. They will also strictly enforce the Labour Protection Law to prevent child labour.
The US has moved to cancel orders for shrimp, clothing, sugar and fish from Thailand due to concerns that the production might involve child or forced labour. Pakorn said this has hurt the economy because Thailand exports up to Bt70 billion worth of shrimp to the US yearly.
