WITH OVER 300,000 Cambodian migrant workers having returned to their homeland due to the five-day clashes along the border that ended on July 28 longan farmers plus owners of plants processing this fruit are facing a labour shortage and while Myanmar workers have been brought in work in their stead at these plants, it is very difficult to replace those who departed at the orchards, Amarin TV said today (Aug. 11).
Col. Dr. Ratthavit Tangkiatpetch said while the total number of Cambodian workers heading back home via Baan Laem border checkpoint in Pong Namron district of Chanthaburi, across the border from Battambang in Cambodia, has decreased to 2,000 today, approximately 300,000 have already left Thailand.
A total of 435,000-plus Cambodian nationals were reported to have been employed for jobs such as farm hands and construction workers in the interiors of Thailand.
Most were known to have been evidently appalled at stern warnings sent from Phnom Penh through their relatives in Cambodia that they would be denaturalised and that parcels of land currently occupied by their relatives inside that country be confiscated by the state if they failed to return home from Thailand in the wake of the border conflict.
Chanthaburi’s Pong Namron and Soi Dao districts need around 40,000 to 45,000 longan pickers during peak harvest but at present there are no more than 4,000 to 4,500 Cambodian workers left in the area.
While Myanmar workers have been brought in to sort and carry longans at processing centres, when it comes to picking this fruit even if the farmers train up Myanmar workers it will be difficult to replace the Cambodian workers, he added.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Cambodian workers heading back home. Photo: Amarin TV
Insert: Delicious longans. Photo: Thai Rath
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