On 30th June 2014 at Phuket Provincial Hall, Khun Maitree Intusut – Phuket Governor presided over a meeting aimed at tackling the problem of alien workers and human trafficking. Also present at the meeting were Khun Sommai Preechasil – Phuket Vice Governor, Capt Kritsada Rattanasupa of the Third Royal Thai Navy Command, Phuket Provincial Employment Office chief – Khun Yaowapa Pibulpol and Khun Somyos Wongbunyakul – President, Phuket Fishing Association.
At the meeting, Khun Maitree said that Phuket has effectively implemented a number of measures to solve the problem of human trafficking in the foreign labour system; these cover both child & foreign labour which meet the criteria which was recently announced.
Phuket’s measure focus on 3 missions, the first to investigate fishing vessels to ensure that any foreign labourers employed on the vessels are registered correctly and that all the ships licenses are valid. The second is the opening of a new one-stop foreign labour service, and the third to ensure that the number of workers employed in various industries do not exceed the required numbers.
Khun Somyos added that problems in Phuket with alien workers are hopefully an issue of the past. Phuket has been aware of problems in the past and has managed to set up registration procedures to help such workers. This includes working together with the Department of Fisheries to make sure that the number of workers employed in the industry does not exceed the 3,000 to 5,000 people that are required, depending on the climate and the marine environment.