Thailand to stop accepting pregnant migrant workers

Thailand's labor minister Phadermchai Sasomsap is thinking over a plan to block migrant employees who are more than three months' pregnant in their country, according to a report from Asian News Network.

Sasomsap said that they only want to discourage migrant workers from having babies in this country just to stop the confusion that Thailand utilizes child labor.

He said that children of migrant workers have in fact stayed around factories and sometimes help with their parents' work, because if they stay at home, they are completely on their own. But some non-governmental organizations have misinterpreted their presence at work sites as exploitation.

According to Sasomsap, they already spoke to the Labour Protection and Welfare Department to draft the regulation. He insisted that his agenda was not a violation of human rights, because the migrant workers can go back after they deliver their babies.

The minister added that it is the only way that they can do to remove their number two rank in "Human Trafficking Watch List" in United States. — ARA