Thai workers overseas suffer from stress due to language problems

HONG KONG, May 17 (TNA) - A Thai envoy in Hong Kong says that several Thai workers in Taiwan and Hong Kong suffer from stress related to their language problems, with some even trying to hurt themselves. Suree Trairattananukul, Deputy Consul-General of the Royal Thai Consulate in Hong Kong, told journalists Thursday, when observing epidemic control activities organised by the Thai Ministry of Public Health, that cultural differences and the lack of medication appear to be the main causes of the stress among the overseas Thai workers. Suree pointed out to an earlier case in which a Thai male worker tried to hurt himself at the Hong Kong International Airport, where his flight made a stopover enroute from Taiwan to Bangkok as he was stressful for communication problems. According to the senior Thai envoy, there are some 30,000 Thai nationals in Hong Kong and Macao currently, about 27,800 of them are in Hong Kong, where they mostly work as housemaids and are married with locals. (TNA)