Government wants short-term prisoners to work on fishing boats
You just have to get up there. The prisons are overcrowded and the fisheries employ victims of human trafficking. Combine those two data and here's the military government's latest plan: it wants to employ short-term prisoners on fishing boats.
The bright idea was announced yesterday by the highest official of the Ministry of Justice. He says it has the support of the Ministers of Justice and Employment. Participation in the program is voluntary; other jobs are also eligible for employment.
The idea has already provoked quite a bit of ridicule. Surapong Kongchanthuek, human rights lawyer affiliated with the Lawyers Council of Thailand, thinks it's not a good idea.
'While the program is voluntary, I don't think detainees have a real choice if they have to choose between prison or working on a fishing boat. Sending prisoners to sea does not prepare for release. They can get better job training. By gaining work experience in a factory, they develop skills and get a chance to adapt to the outside world.'
A representative of the Action Network for Migrants believes the program poses occupational hazards and questions how prisoners are monitored when they are out of port.
The Corrections Department has discussed the plan with the Fishers Trawlers Association (FTA) and has also polled other sectors to see if they would like to participate in the programme. Industrial estate Amata Industrial in Chon Buri is willing to take prisoners and pay them a wage.
Phubet Chanthamini, chairman of the FTA, is positive: 'It is something we should support. We give migrants without papers or ID a chance to work. Prisoners deserve that chance too. […] The working conditions on trawlers are not bad, although many people think they are. The shipowners must adhere to strict rules.'
Thailand has 143 prisons with 320.000 inmates. Of those, 200.000 (70 percent) are incarcerated for drug crimes, and of that group, 100.000 are users or small dealers. This group could be eligible for the program. The Office of Narcotics Control Board is going to list the big drug traffickers and small dealers.
Another way to tackle overcrowding is electronic detention with an ankle bracelet. Justice has bought 3.000 for use in 22 provinces. The bill amounted to 74 million baht. The judge decides whether a prisoner qualifies.
(Source: Bangkok Post, 23 November 2014)
Hi Dick,
Actually, your first introductory lines are already a very hard opinion.
How does someone come up with such an idea.
Nine out of ten Thai people can't swim, but that doesn't mean they don't have a boyfriend who can arrange a boat.
And they may still choose whether they want yes or no.
Are we super intelligent that we think this idea is ridiculous or has the government lost some of those cells.
Poor smuggled people who work on those boats.
They had no choice.
LOUISE
And what should a captain of a fishing boat do with a probably unmotivated ex-drug dealer, whom he has to keep an extra eye on as soon as the ship docks in the harbor.
And where you have to assume that the new deckhand knows as much about sea fishing as about staying on the right track.
A nice plan, probably born during the Ministry's weekly drinks hour.
Just a good idea and one of many proposals that never materialized, see the ideas about selling lottery ticket prices (up to 90 baht while openly asking 110 baht), also the registration of motor bike taxi drivers, they transport passengers and serve a yellow as well as minivans and large buses, have personally seen only 4 of these carriers with an actual yellow number plate on a busy road in Pattaya in the past 2 months.
Incidentally, it was already the case years ago that short-term prisoners with a blue T-shirt with a recognizable prison print used to clean the sewers under degrading conditions and the prospect that part of their sentence would be waived.
So nothing wrong with that!
In my neighborhood I see a few people every day who , although they are not yet in Thai prison .
They have not yet been arrested , probably the local gendarmerie has not caught up with them yet .
Do meet all the requirements to be able to join those 100000 drug-related cases.
The trade in Jaba is booming again .
I stood there and watched it.
Jan Beute.
A better idea would be to place the junkies and dealers with the junta, but with an ankle bracelet and strict regime so that some disciplines can be taught. And make it mandatory if so.
Hendrik