Thai berry-pickers from Sweden and Finland return home after salary windfall

Thai berry-pickers from Sweden and Finland have returned home after striking the jackpot during the prime picking season. The Thai labourers have reportedly earned almost 800 million baht in the last 3 months. Thailand’s Labour Minister Suchart Chomklin says the workers arrived back today and were happily not empty-handed.

“Today, 895 Thai labourers returned home via Suvarnabhumi Airport, 365 of them from Finland and 530 from Sweden. They had been working there since July during the berry-picking season. Since October 1, 3,270 Thai labourers have returned from these countries (689 from Finland and 2,581 from Sweden) where they got paid around 80,000 baht per month, or total earnings of almost 800 million baht.”

Suchart says sending such labourers overseas is one of the ministry’s missions after PM Prayut set out to promote the skills of Thais in international markets to assure the world of Thailand’s Covid-19 prevention efficiency. That mission saw almost 5,300 Thais landing in Sweden and Finland for work. After the berry-picking season ended, Thai labourers are trickling back into the country until October 23.

He says that those Thais returning home are being screened and transported to alternative state quarantine or organisation quarantine facilities for a mandatory 14 day stay.

SOURCE: The Nation Thailand