FRIDAY, March 29, 2024
nationthailand

Foreign media ‘slave labour report unfair’

Foreign media ‘slave labour report unfair’

THE government has slammed an unnamed foreign news agency for what it described as twisting the facts and causing damage to Thailand for reporting about the use of slave labour in the Kingdom, especially in the fishing industry.

The government has urged all sides to sympathise with it and understand its plight.
The team assigned by the government to tackle the use of forced labour in the fishing industry will explain the facts in relation to the report at a press conference at Government House tomorrow, Government Spokesman Maj-General Sansern Kaewkamnerd said.
The team is overseen by Deputy Prime Minister General Prawit Wongsuwan.
Sansern praised the media for covering the authorities’ continued suppression of illegal labour and labour lawbreakers, which he said had resulted in the number of offences against Thais and migrant workers visibly decreasing.
But he said the aforementioned wire service’s investigative report, which was picked up by local and foreign media outlets last week, could cause many people to believe that there was a major slave labour problem in Thailand and the authorities were not doing anything to stop it. 
In the report, Myanmar workers held against their will at a shrimp factory talked about working in poor condition for 16 hours for little money.
Sansern said the news agency in question had observed the authority’s factory-inspecting team in action in Samut Sakhon on November 9 and then presented a report that could cause an extensive misunderstanding.
He said the report, which led to renewed international calls to ban Thai fishery products especially shrimp products, was one-sided and careless and had left many people with a negative image of Thailand.
“The government would like to call for sympathy and understanding from all sides over this news report,” he said. 
“The detection of wrongdoings doesn’t mean that Thailand supports the use of slave labour. On the contrary, we are proceeding with actions against illegal labour and we will create justice for all migrant labourers coming to work in Thailand.”
Sansern said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha was treating it as an issue to high importance and had called for the prosecution of wrongdoers – be they business operators, workers or state officials – in a bid to solve the problem. 
 
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