The Labour Ministry plans the zoning of migrant workers’ residences in many provinces for health reasons, its spokesman says.

The zoning would ensure good environmental conditions and effective disease control as some diseases that had disappeared from Thailand re-emerged, spokesman Ananchai Uthaipattnacheep said on Monday. He cited cholera, elephantiasis and tuberculosis.

Labour authorities, including Labour Minister Sirichai Distakul, discussed the issue on Monday. Governors of Samut Sakhon and Ranong provinces presented their zoning plans to the meeting at the Labour Ministry.

For Samut Sakhon where there are 280,000 migrant workers, authorities would initially have employers house their 10,000 workers in the Tha Chin flat project of the National Housing Authority in Muang district. About 5,000 already settled there.

Elsewhere in the province, local authorities would require other migrant workers to stay only in five communities where they already rented rooms, Mr Ananchai said. He referred to Ban Nong Bua, Khlong Khru Nok, Khlong Jek, San Chao and Wat Noi Nang Hong communities in Muang and Krathum Baen districts.

More buildings would be constructed in the five communities to accommodate more workers, Mr Ananchai said.

For Ranong, where about 68,000 migrant workers stayed, officials were looking for suitable areas for the zoning and would propose the private sector and local administrative organisations build such residences for rents, he said.

The zoning would also happen in 11 other provinces with large numbers of migrant workers. They were Chiang Mai, Chon Buri, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Phuket, Rayong, Samut Prakan, Songkhla, Surat Thani and Tak, Mr Ananchai said.

The Labour Ministry was drafting an executive decree to require employers of migrant workers to arrange for accommodations for their employees within their premises or state-specified zones.

By: Penchan Charoensuthipan, Bangkok Post

Published on: 30 January 2017