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Published on November 15, 2007

 

 There are around 2,000 children born to illegal immigrants nation-wide each month, prompting an alarming call for immediate internal security and nationality solutions, Deputy Prime Minister Sonthi Boonyaratglin said yesterday.

Sonthi, who deals with internal security after resigning from the National Council for Security to take a Cabinet post, said a permanent mechanism supervised by the National Security Council (NSC) would need to be set up to deal with "the problem".

"There have been many problems concerning high birth rates, disease control, conflicts with Thai people and among themselves along with social issues, which will all become long-standing problems. They may demand more and more for their rights. These problems may become unsolvable one day," he added.

Sonthi was speaking after a visit to Samut Sakhon province, where most of the hundreds of thousands of fishing trawler crews were illegal immigrants. Only 70,000 of them were registered with the local labour offices.

"I am concerned by the alarming facts. We need to organise the whole issue now, but we will follow the right steps, because if there is anything overdone, human rights groups may get involved to take care of the issue," he said.

In Ranong, which borders Burma, Governor Kanjanapha Keeman made public a nine-point solution issued recently by the Supreme Command for management of internal security and social order in coastal provinces where immigrant workers resided.

Several projects that might provide solutions include the establishment of VHF and Citizen Band radio transmission stations in the province to improve communication between local communities, civilian government agencies and security agencies.

The other projects are aimed at preventing illegal entry, human smuggling, trafficking, slave labour, plus narcotics suppression plans and the registration of all fishing trawlers operating off the Ranong coast and other provinces bordering the Andaman Sea.

Kanjanapha said immigrant workers in Ranong, both registered and illegal, were producing illicit stimulants in their communities to cope with the long hours and hard labour while many of them kept entering Thailand with smuggled drugs.

 The Nation