Thailand
Human trafficking to become national priority in bid to avoid sanctions

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community
PHUKET: The suppression of human trafficking will be made a national priority on Friday to avoid the risk of Thailand being downgraded under an international protocol against trafficking, Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday.
Gen Prawit was also responding to a comment posted on Facebook by former PM Yingluck Shinawatra, in which she said her government had not failed in addressing problems related to human rights violations and child labor in the fishing industry.
“This government is not saying that the previous government did not act on the issue, but it did not solve the problem on the spot, did not amend regulations required and did not follow international standards,” the deputy PM said.
Ms Yingluck posted her comment after Prime Minister Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha said last week that human trafficking was still a big problem because her government did little to solve it.
PM Prawit said: “If the previous government claims it acted on the issue, then we need to look into why fishing trawlers were not registered.”
The current government would make the suppression of human trafficking part of the national agenda on Friday so Thailand is not held liable for the violation of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing rules, he said.
He said any officials found benefiting from human trafficking would also be punished.
“This is pursuing an important issue that is considered to be serious by the international community,” he noted.
On Sunday, Nopphadol Kannika, an adviser to the Labor Ministry, said that 869 trawlers had been inspected since the military government took power in May last year and that 65 had been seized. In comparison, the previous government only inspected 152 trawlers during its three years in office.
“Legal action was only taken against the operator of one trawler [by the Yingluck government],” he said.
Meanwhile, a one-stop service center has been set up by a special task force from the ministries of Social Development and Human Security, Labor and Foreign Affairs, plus the Department of Special Investigation at Tantui port in Indonesia’s Ambon Island to help Thai fishermen working or stuck there. Some 80 Thai fishermen were registered there yesterday.
In another development, the Anti-Money Laundering Office ordered the seizure yesterday of Bt31 million in assets from three men who smuggled Rohingya people into Thailand and supplied them to trawlers based in Songkhla province. Deputy AMLO secretary-general Suwanee Sawaengphol said some 45 people were found connected to the three men and the 121 items on the seizure list included bank deposits and savings bonds.
Police yesterday also apprehended 27 beggars, 13 of who were Cambodians, in Bangkok and nabbed 78 beggars in Sa Kaew province. Pol Col Somsakchai Amornsongcharoen, who leads the Women and Children’s Protection sub-division, said police would continue hunting down beggars up until today and all Cambodians in custody would be repatriated.
Police also rounded up some 76 Rohingya people on a train yesterday bound for the Thai-Malaysia border via Narathiwat’s Sungai Kolok district.
The Rohingya, who were in third-class carriages, were arrested for failing to present legal documents when the train stopped at Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Thung Song district.
Initial inquiries revealed that they had boarded the train at different stations such as Hua Lamphong in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Ratchaburi and Chumphon provinces in hope of reaching Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat province.
Police are looking to see if this group is linked to a human trafficking gang, before having them face legal action at the Immigration Police Bureau and getting them deported.
— Phuket Gazette Editors
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Thailand
Thailand News Today | Thai army trim the Generals, sugar making Thais fat | March 8

71 new Covid cases in Thailand today, the generals are being told they’re going to face pay cuts and a Thai doctors has issued a warning about the link between Thai’s love for sugary sweets and life-threatening diseases… there goes my afternoon donut. And don’t worry, I’m not going to sing my way through the news today, it’s just nice and cool in my home studio so you can enjoy the cool with me. We’ve also got a new segment at the end of the news today… you’ll see that soon enough.
71 new coronavirus cases have been announced today, 31 of them from the hotzone of Samut Sakhon, just south of Bangkok. This beings the total number of confirmed cases in Thailand to 26,441.
The death toll remains at 85 people.
The Thai Army, Navy and Air Force are aiming to trim the number of generals in the ranks by 25% by 2029. But plenty of critics say the plan is probably just more words and won’t ever happen.
A Thai doctor is reminding Thais about the clear links between eating sugary foods and the risk of various life-threatening diseases, including cancer. The doctor warns that high consumption of sugar can trigger everything from fatty liver, clogged arteries and liver cancer. 4 million Thais have been diagnosed with diabetes.
Hotels in the northern province of Chiang Mai have been forced to slash rates by up to 90%, desperately trying to attract more local tourists. The northern chapter of the Thai Hotels Association, claims, with tourists mainly favouring the southern beach destinations over the past month month, hotel operators in the north are now planning for low season.
Anti-government activists gathered at Bangkok’s Democracy Monument yesterday. Although the anti-government protests have kicked off again after a 2 month hiatus, the numbers are well down on last years crowds, now measuring more in the hundreds than the thousands.
Meanwhile the protest leader Panusaya aka “Rung”, has been hit with a fine of nearly 6 million baht. Her crime? Allegedly removing plants at the Democracy Monument. Panusaya and 5 other activists have been charged with removing plants placed as decoration around the monument, during a political rally back on February 13.
Various groups, including Amnesty International and the UN Human Rights Committee, continue to criticise the Thai government’s use of the country’s lèse majesté laws, with Amnesty International describing it as an attempt to silence dissent.
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Thailand
Local Thai politician arrested after allegedly firing shots at a pub

A local politician allegedly shot 4 people at a pub in Nakhon Phanom. Witnesses told the Bangkok Post that the man started firing shots at throughout the pub because he was drunk and unhappy with the table service. Police arrested 58 year old Paisal Saengnarai, who is a kamnan, the governing official of a tambon or sub district.
Witnesses say the kamnan of tambon Na-ngua at the pub drinking with friends when he got unhappy with the waiter. He then walked out to his car, drove to the front of the pub, grabbed his 9mm CZ pistol and started firing random shots in the pub, witnesses said, according to the Bangkok Post.
8 to 9 shots were fired, hitting 4 customers at the pub. They were rushed to Ban Phaeng Hospital. Paisal was arrested on a firearms charge.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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Coronavirus (Covid-19)
Quarantine for vaccinated travellers to Thailand reduced to 7 days

For the past year the mandatory quarantine period in Thailand has been 14 days, sometimes up to 16 days and 15 nights. Now the Thai government has reviewed the quarantine period and announced changes.
If you’ve been vaccinated against the coronavirus, the mandatory quarantine period will be reduced from 14 days to 7 days. The announcement was made by Thailand’s Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirankul in a press conference yesterday afternoon. Those who haven’t been vaccinated, but have a medical certificate declaring that they are Covid-free, will be required to quarantine to 10 days, Anutin said, according to Reuters.
Minister Anutin says vaccinations must be administered within 3 months of travelling to Thailand. Travellers must still show negative Covid-19 test results issued within 72 hours of their departure to Thailand. Those travelling from Africa must still quarantine for 14 days “due to concerns about new variants of the coronavirus”.
We’ll update the details on this announcement as they come to hand.
SOURCE: Reuters
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