Poland 'exploiting Thai farm workers'

Labour activists have demanded Polish authorities suspend issuing visas for Thai workers unless the problem of labour rights violations in its agricultural sector is solved.

Janya Yimprasert, Union of the Thai Overseas Workers chairwoman, yesterday lodged a petition with the Polish embassy in Bangkok asking it to solve the problem of Thai workers being exploited by recruitment firms and employers.

She asked Polish labour officials to look into the problem and also force Polish employers who hired Thai labourers to follow the employment law.

She said one way of preventing the problem was for the Polish embassy to stop giving visas to Thai workers to pressure employers to improve working conditions they offered the Thais.

Ms Janya was accompanied by more than 50 workers who were lured to work in Poland.

Most of them paid money to Kitti Brothers Recruitment Co and Thai Syntax Travel Service Co, which were the two main brokers sending Thai workers to Poland, Ms Janya said.

After arriving in Poland, the workers were sent to work under the supervision of two local recruitment agencies, NOBA Co and East West Co.

They were forced to work in various farms and plants without a permanent employer, which is illegal under Polish law.

Thirty-three Thai workers have been arrested in Poland and detained this year.

Many returned home unpaid by their employers. Each returnee should have received 60,000-90,000 baht in wages, Ms Janya said.

"Several workers were forced to work on the farms for 24 hours a day, but did not get overtime for months in a row. Their living conditions are also bad," she said.

She urged the two governments to work together in helping workers who have fallen victim to forced labour and human trafficking.

She also asked the Labour Ministry to review its policy of allowing private recruitment firms to send local workers to work overseas.

She said figures showed many recruitment firms had illegally overcharged their clients.

They charged workers between 120,000-400,000 baht each in brokerage fees.

The law caps the fee at 50,000 baht, Ms Janya said.

She also discussed with labour officials the possibility of forcing the Thai and Polish brokerage firms to pay compensation to the victims.