8,000 Thai workers to be evacuated tomorrow

Another 8,000 Thai workers will be evacuated from Libya tomorrow and returned to Thailand in a week, Labour Minister Chalermchai Sri-on said.The labourers will be sheltered at Thai-arranged evacuation centres around Libya waiting to be sent back to Thailand at 500 people at a time, the minister said, adding that the last group was expected to reach Thailand in a week.

Mr Chalermchai was responding to a question on the government's worker evacuation plan in the lower house yesterday from Wichien Khaokham, a Puea Thai MP for Udon Thani.

Mr Wichien asked the minister to explain the government's assistance for Thai workers in Libya, where violent political unrest erupted on Feb 15.

He said China had managed to evacuate 30,000 of its workers from Libya in only seven days, but only 1,544 of 20,000 Thai workers in the strife-torn country have arrived back in Thailand so far.

Mr Wichien questioned how effectively the government was assisting a group of 5,000 Thai workers in danger zones in Libya.

Mr Chalermchai defended the government saying that since the anti-government protests erupted in Egypt and later spread to other countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Libya, the Labour Ministry had followed the situation closely to see how Thai workers in the region were faring.

So far, no Thai workers have died but some sustained injuries while being evacuated from Tripoli and Benghazi.

Of the Thai workers in Libya, about 8,000 had contacted the Thai embassy saying they wanted to go home. About 10,000 had not been affected and wanted to continue working in the country.

The 8,000 Thai workers do not include the 1,994 who have already arrived home.

Labour Ministry officials have been assigned to work at Suvarnabhumi airport around the clock to receive the workers flying back home.

Buses have been arranged to take them to their home provinces where they will receive 15,000 baht each as part of assistance from the ministry.

After the evacuation, Mr Chalermchai said the ministry would divide the evacuated workers into three groups.

The ministry would look for between 4,000 and 5,000 jobs for workers who do not want to return to work in Arab countries, according to the minister.

For workers who do not want to go back to Libya but still want to go overseas to work, the ministry has talked to the Taiwanese government to arrange jobs for them. Workers will earn about the same as they did in Libya.

For those who want to return to work in Libya after the unrest ends, the ministry would ask placement firms to minimise their service fees for arranging jobs.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Affairs Ministry is concerned about Thai labourers who went to work in Libya without going through job placement companies, saying they might have difficulties escaping the strife-torn country at the moment.

Chavanond Intarakomalyasut, secretary to the Foreign Minister, yesterday phoned from Tunisia to address the problem with the ministry in Bangkok.

Mr Chavanond said he was also worried about a group of Thai workers who had to find their own means to escape from risk areas in Libya as they had found work there themselves without going through job placement firms.