Thailand increases number of 'low risk' countries from 46 to 63

Thailand has increased the number of countries and regions it will allow fully vaccinated visitors without quarantine under its 'Test & Go' policy.

Late on Saturday (Oct 30), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that its list of 'low risk' countries and territories had been increased from 46 to 63.

New additions to the list include India, Luxembourg, Vietnam, Taiwan and the Philippines, among others.  

The news comes as the Indian community in Thailand last week called on the Thai government to allow Indians to be able to visit Thailand from November 1.

Satish Sehgal, chairman of the India-Thai businessmen association, said Indians should be included in the 'low risk' list as Indian tourists are amongst the top 5 spenders in Thailand, visiting the country for tourism, weddings and business.

Thailand is the top overseas wedding destination for wealthy Indians.
In 2019, approximately 2 million Indian tourists visited Thailand generating 80 billion Baht in tourism revenue,

On Monday (Nov 1), Thailand officially reopens to international foreign tourists for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

Source - ASIAN NOW

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Strong 5.9-magnitude quake jolts Indonesia's #Lombok

Mataram, Indonesia - A strong aftershock struck Indonesia's Lombok on Thursday, causing panic among evacuees sheltering after a devastating earthquake killed more than 160 on the holiday island four days earlier.

The 5.9-magnitude quake Thursday struck at a shallow depth in the northwest of the island, the US Geological Survey said, even as relief agencies raced to find survivors among wreckage from Sunday's quake.

    "The quake was felt strongly. There have been 355 aftershocks since Sunday," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.

    Evacuees at a shelter in northern Lombok's Tanjung district ran out onto the road crying and screaming, an AFP reporter at the scene said.

    Motorcycles parked on the street toppled over and the walls of some nearby buildings collapsed.

    A woman wearing a motorbike helmet was seen crying with her two daughters in her arms.

    "We were stuck in the traffic while delivering aid, suddenly it felt like our car was hit from behind, it was so strong," witness Sri Laksmi told AFP.

 

 "People in the street began to panic and got out of their cars, they ran in different directions in the middle of the traffic."

     The aftershock comes after Sunday's devastating 6.9-magnitude earthquake, which relief agencies said had wiped out entire villages in the worst-hit regions of northern and western Lombok.

    A total of 164 people have been confirmed killed in Sunday's quake, national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho told AFP, with a further 1,400 seriously injured and more than 150,000 displaced.

    Relief efforts had yet to reach parts of the island even before Thursday's aftershock, Indonesian authorities said, with hopes fading of finding further survivors among the wreckage.

    "The earthquake does not have any tsunami potential," Hary Tirto Djatmiko, spokesman for Indonesia's meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG), said of Thursday's aftershock.

Source - TheNation

 

#Cambodia - Thousands of migrant workers head home

New labour law causes panic but many expect to return with valid documents 

Several tens of thousands of  Cambodian and Myanmar migrant workers have left Thailand from various border checkpoints in a bid to obtain proper document in their home towns before re-entering the country for work.

In the Thai province of Sa Kaew, several thousand Cambodians sought to return home to apply for passports so that they could come back to work here legally as required by the new Thai foreign labour law. The stricter law has prompted some employers to stop hiring illegal migrants.

According to the new foreign labour law, employers of illegal migrants could face a hefty fine of Bt400,000-Bt800,000 per migrant worker if found to have violated the law. The government said enforcement of the law will be suspended for a 120-day period, starting June 23, to allow time for all parties concerned to comply with new requirements.

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Pol Colonel Benjapol Rodsawad, the Sa Kaew immigration chief, said Cambodian migrant workers voluntarily turned themselves in at the border checkpoint to be handed over to Cambodian authorities. Some Cambodians said their previous employers wanted them to leave due to the hefty penalties under the new law, while many said they wanted to apply for Cambodian passports so that they could return to work here legally.

On June 28-29, immigration authorities also reported that a total of 546 Cambodians were detained for illegal entry into Thailand, including those detained by immigration offices in Saraburi, Ayuthaya, Samut Prakan and Pattani provinces.

Under the new foreign labour law, migrant workers are also subject to heavy penalties, including a fine of Bt2,000-Bt100,000 per person and/or imprisonment of up to five years, if arrested by Thai authorities for working here without proper permits.

Myanmar authorities in Myawaddy province opposite Thailand’s Mae Sot district of Tak province have opened a temporary facility to accommodate more than 10,000 returnees from Thailand at the border crossing.

Returnees are also offered food and shelter as they prepare to travel back to their hometowns. At least, 8,491 Myanmar workers are reported to have left Thailand over the past few days, while Myanmar authorities said they welcome returnees and no legal action would be taken.

Pol Colonel Passakorn Kwanwan, the Mae Sot police chief, said the Thai police would face disciplinary and other actions if they demand bribes from returnees.

However, business operators in Mae Sot have complained of labour shortage resulting from heavy penalties under the new law since about 90 per cent of workers in the area are illegal migrant workers.

Chaiwat Withit-thammawong, an adviser of Tak province’s chamber of commerce, said the new law is good for Thailand in the long run in terms of tackling problems resulting from a large number of illegal migrant workers in the country. 

The next step is to require employers and migrant workers to register properly but the government has to ensure that the process is fast and convenient while expenses are not high, Chaiwat said.

The fisheries industry also reported a severe shortage of labour due to enforcement of the new law.

Meanwhile, two Myanmar workers were injured when a bus taking them from Mae Sot to Samut Sakhon province veered off the road in Angthong province early Saturday.

The accident happened at 4am on the Bangkok-bound Asia highway in Moo 3, Tambon Lakfah, in the province’s Chaiyo district, said Pol-Lieutenant Chatchai Chaiya of Chaiyo police station.

The bus driver, Pinchai Thongsakul, 47, admitted that he had dozed off, causing the bus to veer off for about 100 metres. A Myanmar man suffered from back pain and a pregnant Myanmar woman suffered from vaginal bleeding. The two were rushed to the Chaiyo district hospital.

Pinchai said he had taken 26 Myanmar men and 22 women by bus from Samut Sakhon to renew their passport across the Mae Sot border and he was returning with them to Samut Sakhon when the accident happened.

Meanwhile in Tak, three police officers were removed from their posts and assigned  guard duty at Mae Sot Police Station, after a video clip showed them asking for bribes from Myanmar migrant workers.

Pol-Colonel Passakorn Klanwan, Mae Sot Police superintendent, revealed that the committee to investigate this issue has already been set up and if these three police officers are found guilty, there will be swift punishment according to the law.

Source - TheNation

#Thailand - Dozens injured in Pattani double bomb blasts.

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Many children among casualties; ‘mass killing’ cited as motive
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ABOUT 50 people were injured by a huge car bomb outside a department store in Pattani in the deep South yesterday afternoon that also caused widespread damage.
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The bombers used a common tactic in the insurgency – triggering a small initial explosive inside the Big C department store, which sent shoppers running outside in panic, before the second bomb concealed in a pickup parked at an entrance door was detonated. The first bomb also seemed intended to distract authorities ahead of the second much bigger blast.
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The attack took place at the store in Muang district at about 2.30pm, a time when the store was crowded with parents and children looking for school items including uniforms in preparation for the new semester.
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Among the dozens of people injured in the blasts were store staff, at least one of whom was seriously hurt, as well as many children.
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Colonel Pramote Prom-in, spokesman of the regional Internal Security Operations Command, said the bombers seemed intent on “mass killing”. 

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 “The bombers parked the pickup in front of the entrance of the store, clearly showing their intention of mass killing. However, the suspicious vehicle was spotted and people were evacuated from the area in time before the second explosion,” Pramote said.

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Source - TheNation + More Photos 

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