02-09-2025, 02:52 PM
I was interested to see that several Thais who had been captured on October 7th were just released by Hamas. Why were Thais in Israel? Had they been at the music festival perhaps? Why had Hamas taken them?
Here's what I learned: The Thais were in Israel as farm workers and in fact a huge number of Thais are brought into Israel to work the farms. The Thais are restricted to less desirable accommodations near the Gaza strip and so were convenient targets October 7th, caught up in the fog of war as it were.
I also learned that I am very late to the party. Human Rights Council (HRC) writing in 2015 found that, "From 2008 to 2013, according to government figures reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz, 122 Thai workers died in Israel, including 43 from “sudden nocturnal death syndrome,” which affects young and healthy Asian men, five from suicide, and 22 for unknown reasons because Israeli police did not request a post-mortem."
"A Thai man working in a farm in the north of the country told Human Rights Watch that he felt “like dead meat” after a working day that typically began at 4:30 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. A colleague of his described employers watching them working in his fields through binoculars and treating them “like slaves.” Several groups of workers said they typically worked 12 hours per day, seven days per week, and received only four days’ vacation per year."
"Workers also complained that their employers over-charged them for accommodations and utilities, and artificially inflated the price of certain goods in shops in isolated moshavim where the workers, who often lacked the time, means of transportation, and even rudimentary information about other towns and cities in Israel to travel elsewhere, had no option but to buy food."
The now 10 year old report on Israel's slave labor and human rights abuses goes on for as long as you can stomach it. Maybe things have improved since then?
"In 2020, a report from the workers' rights NGO Kav LaOved found that 83% of Thais in Israel were paid below the legal minimum wage, that many did not receive legally assured entitlements, and that they faced unsafe working conditions and lack of access to medical care." (https://theweek.com/business/jobs/how-di...e-by-hamas) Ok, guess not.
"...in 2022 , a US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report described "the treatment of some Thai workers in Israel's agricultural sector as forced labour." (https://www.ft.com/content/9ddbdee8-c566...ad6c45f641)
As of this writing, there are currently 38,000 Thai workers in Israel living under these conditions. Somehow, I doubt this story will receive the attention that other groups have garnered.
Thought I had paragraph breaks when I wrote this, weird.
Here's what I learned: The Thais were in Israel as farm workers and in fact a huge number of Thais are brought into Israel to work the farms. The Thais are restricted to less desirable accommodations near the Gaza strip and so were convenient targets October 7th, caught up in the fog of war as it were.
I also learned that I am very late to the party. Human Rights Council (HRC) writing in 2015 found that, "From 2008 to 2013, according to government figures reported by the Israeli daily Haaretz, 122 Thai workers died in Israel, including 43 from “sudden nocturnal death syndrome,” which affects young and healthy Asian men, five from suicide, and 22 for unknown reasons because Israeli police did not request a post-mortem."
"A Thai man working in a farm in the north of the country told Human Rights Watch that he felt “like dead meat” after a working day that typically began at 4:30 a.m. and ended at 7 p.m. A colleague of his described employers watching them working in his fields through binoculars and treating them “like slaves.” Several groups of workers said they typically worked 12 hours per day, seven days per week, and received only four days’ vacation per year."
"Workers also complained that their employers over-charged them for accommodations and utilities, and artificially inflated the price of certain goods in shops in isolated moshavim where the workers, who often lacked the time, means of transportation, and even rudimentary information about other towns and cities in Israel to travel elsewhere, had no option but to buy food."
The now 10 year old report on Israel's slave labor and human rights abuses goes on for as long as you can stomach it. Maybe things have improved since then?
"In 2020, a report from the workers' rights NGO Kav LaOved found that 83% of Thais in Israel were paid below the legal minimum wage, that many did not receive legally assured entitlements, and that they faced unsafe working conditions and lack of access to medical care." (https://theweek.com/business/jobs/how-di...e-by-hamas) Ok, guess not.
"...in 2022 , a US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report described "the treatment of some Thai workers in Israel's agricultural sector as forced labour." (https://www.ft.com/content/9ddbdee8-c566...ad6c45f641)
As of this writing, there are currently 38,000 Thai workers in Israel living under these conditions. Somehow, I doubt this story will receive the attention that other groups have garnered.
Thought I had paragraph breaks when I wrote this, weird.