Labour minister visits Thai workers in Israel

BANGKOK, December 20 (TNA) - Labour Minister Police General Adul Sangsingkeo has visited Thai workers in Israel to listen to their problems and survey the evacuation system provided for the Thai employees in case of any emergency. Accompanied by his entourage, the Thai labour minister left for Israel on December 19, aimed to also follow up the updated situation in sensitive and violence-prone areas where the Thai workers are employed, including Moshav and Kibbutz. Besides, the Thai labour minister and his team also surveyed the route for the evacuation of Thai workers in the Port of Haifa, where they were welcome by Israeli Honorary Consul Joseph Gillor and the port's top management and were led to observe shelters for Thai workers in case of any emergency, namely political violence and natural disasters. The Thai labour minister and his team later held talks with Israeli authorities on employment and welfare measures for Thai workers, concerning their employment contracts, working hours and their residential camps, following reports that there have been over 170 Thai nationals passing away while working in the nation over the past six years, or 20 yearly on average due to their illnesses, suicide or other unknown causes. Based on official statistics, there are now over 24,700 Thai workers in Israel, most of whom are legal workers and are mainly employed in the local farm sector. Meanwhile, the Thai Embassy to Israel has also prepared measured to assist Thai workers in the violence-prone Middle Eastern country in case of any emergency, including developing a database on their names and telephone numbers, as well as opening up a coordination center to monitor the updated situation and to prepare budgets and evacuation plans for them in five steps, including the normal, the alarming, the violent unrest with no serious impact on the workers, the violent unrest with serious impacts on the workers' safety and the escalating violence widely for a certain period of time. (TNA)