BANGKOK, Thailand — Thailand, which suffered the highest losses among foreign nationals in the murderous Hamas rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, is allowing 10,000 impoverished Thais to fly to Israel to work for better-paying jobs in desert “safe areas,” despite the deaths of 41 Thais and dozens more taken hostage last fall.
A flight carrying 100 Thai laborers — the first of its kind since the horrific events of last fall — flew out of Bangkok Tuesday, the Reuters news service reported, with Thai officials saying a second flight has already been booked for next month.
Last October’s losses were a shock to Thais, and the decision to send in new workers comes even as six Thais nationals are still believed to be among the hostages held by Hamas fighters in Gaza as the war with Israel rages on.
But for poorer Thais living in some of the country’s most economically depressed regions, the offer of good-paying jobs remains a potent lure, and the government here now says it is taking steps to ensure they won’t be caught again in the cross-fire of the Middle East’s ancient animosities.
“Thai nationals must be only employed in safe areas, or green areas, confirmed by Israeli authorities and the Royal Thai Embassy in Tel Aviv,” Thai Labor Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn said.
Mr. Phiphat traveled on May 26 to Tel Aviv to lobby for an increase in the quota for how many Thai men and women, aged 25-41, can go to Israel for work, mostly at agricultural and construction sites.
“Even though it is their choice to return to Israel, it can’t be denied that Thailand’s economy is not appealing enough to keep these workers here,” Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin said in April.
It’s a stark turnaround from the days and weeks after the Oct. 7 attack, when Thailand’s government was organizing dozens of emergency flights to bring home more than 7,000 Thai nationals from Israel. Another 1,500 reportedly left Israel on their own in the wake of the Hamas assault.
More than 30,000 Thais are interested in agricultural, factory, and construction jobs in Israel’s deserts, including more than 25,000 currently awaiting placement under a Thailand-Israel Cooperation (TIC) agreement, the Bangkok Post reported earlier this month.
Bangkok asked the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to allow 45,000 Thais to work there but Israel’s Population, Immigration, and Border Authority (PIBA) fixed an annual quota at 6,000 Thais, the Employment Department said.
Forty-one Thai workers were among the estimated 1,200 people killed in the surprise Oct. 7 Hamas operation, a Labor Ministry spokesman said on May 26 — over half of the estimated foreign nationals killed in the attack, according to the most recent estimates.. More than 35,000 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign into Gaza, and efforts at a new U.S.-sponsored cease-fire appear to be faltering.
“Thirty-one Thai citizens were taken hostage by Hamas terrorists, enduring inconceivable trauma alongside their Israeli counterparts,” said Israeli Ambassador to Thailand Orna Sagiv in an open letter published on May 14.
This time, before Thai workers go from this Buddhist-majority Southeast Asian country to work in Israel, the Thai military will teach them safety skills for emergencies.
Last year, Hamas began releasing its Thai hostages, thanks to a surprise deal brokered by Thailand’s Muslim political and religious leaders who met the militant group’s representatives in Tehran for talks arranged by the Iranian regime. Bangkok described the Thai hostages as neutral, civilian workers not linked to the Israel-Gaza war.
Shortly after fighting erupted in October, nearly 5,000 terrified Thais workers were evacuated from Israel back to Thailand. An additional 20,000 Thais chose to remain in Israel, and told relatives they were not in zones directly affected by the fighting.
Vote of confidence
For the Netanyahu government, which has faced growing international criticism and isolation as it presses its Gaza offensive, the dispatch of new Thai workers is a rare vote of confidence in the country’s stability and attractiveness as an economic magnet. Israel’s Embassy in Bangkok reportedly assured Thailand’s Department of Employment in May that Thais working in Israel would not be assigned to jobs in dangerous “red zones” and would be evacuated if fighting spreads.
“Israeli employers want to have their Thai employees back and are now eagerly waiting for their return,” Amb. Sagiv said at a news briefing in March. “We do not force anyone to stay in dangerous places.”
The ambassador said Israeli officials have also wooed workers for Sri Lanka, Malawi and Latin America to take on hard-to-fill jobs in Israel, and is also negotiating with Cambodia.
“I do not want to see that when the Thai workers decide to return to Israel, their jobs are already filled by others,” Ms. Sagiv said.
During the past 20 years, Thais have competed for the difficult jobs in Israel despite the instability and fighting that have long characterized the region. Many are young men from the northeast part of the country, where entire families often go into debt to afford the airfare and other expenses to send someone abroad, hoping they will remit money home from their better paying jobs.
“Thai workers in the agricultural sector are known to take out loans worth about [$2,777 to $4,166] from the Bank of Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives to pay for travel and related expenses under the Thailand-Israel Cooperation on the Placement of Workers program,” the Bangkok Post reported in October after the assault from Gaza into Israel.
Some Thais were reluctant to evacuate Israel even after the October assault because they needed to pay back hundreds of dollars owed to Thai middlemen who arranged for them to get work on farms and construction sites.
Meanwhile the twists, traumas, and tension over the hostages’ suffering and international efforts to free them boiled over into diplomatic tension between Israel and Thailand after the Hamas attack.
On Jan. 12, Amb. Sagiv posted big photographs of individual hostages onto some of Thailand’s popular, three-wheeled “tuk tuk” taxis, to display the hostages’ plight and demand, in Thai and English, their release. She reportedly led a procession of 10 of the vehicles from Israel’s embassy and along nearby main streets.
“I honestly do not know what we should do. There’s no guideline for that,” she told journalists.
Her public campaign met with criticism from the Thai government, which has been at pains not to offend either side in the conflict.
“The activity was held by the Israeli embassy, and Thailand did not participate or support in organizing the activity,” a Foreign Ministry statement said.
“We don’t want any country to use Thailand as a platform to create conflict,” then-Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said on Jan. 17.
Bangkok was negotiating to release more Thai hostages, “so it does not want to create any problems that will cause any misunderstanding among parties involved in the conflict,” Mr. Parnpree said. “Thailand is friends with every country.”
In 2012, Israel expressed disappointment when Bangkok officially recognized Palestine as a nation with pre-1967 borders and established diplomatic relations by endorsing the Palestinians’ 1988 declaration of independence.
“Thai-Israeli relations have been difficult to navigate, as [Thailand] has to balance its ties with the Muslim world, particularly Iran, which is considered a traditional friend,” columnist Kavi Chongkittavorn wrote on April 23. “The Thai authorities and politicians credited the release of two batches of Thai hostages to their good ties with Muslim friends, including Iran.”
Ms. Sagiv earlier praised Israeli-Thai relations, saying, “In the realm of defense, our close cooperation has bolstered Thailand’s security capabilities, enabling the country to better defend itself against external threats.”
The Royal Thai Navy signed a contract in 2022 to buy seven Israeli-made Hermes military drones from Elbit Systems.
The army purchased 30,000 Israeli-made Tavor TAR-21 assault rifles in 2009 and distributed more than 15,000 to their forces in the south where Thailand is fighting a smoldering separatist insurgency by minority Muslim ethnic Malay-Thais, the Bangkok Post reported. The Israeli assault rifles were to replace heavier U.S.-made M16s as “the first non-U.S. personal firearm to be bought by the army,” officials said at the time.
• Richard S. Ehrlich can be reached at rehrlich@washingtontimes.com.