Thais killed by rocket in Israel part of large workforce

BANGKOK (AP) — The deaths of two Thai migrant workers in Israel in a rocket attack from Gaza cast fresh light on the difficult lives thousands of Thais face far from home.

Weerawat Karunborirak, 44, from the northern province of Petchabun, and Sikarin Sa-ngamrum, 24, from the northeastern province of Buriram, were killed Tuesday at the farm where they worked just across the border from Gaza. Eight other Thai workers were wounded, one seriously.

It is not unusual for Thais from economically disadvantaged rural areas to seek work abroad at wages considerably higher than they could earn at home, in more developed countries where there is a shortage of workers for unskilled manual labor such as agricultural work.

But the hazards of war come on top of a history of poor treatment by employers and failure to enforce labor laws, according to workers' advocates.

Israel started bringing in migrant workers after the first Intifada, the 1987-93 Palestinian revolt, in order “to replace Palestinian workers that employers did not trust anymore,” said Miriam Anati, coordinator for agricultural workers at Kav LaOved, an Israeli private group that seeks to protect the rights of disadvantaged workers.

Many Palestinians have since returned to work in Israel, so there are usually about 23,000 Thai migrant workers employed in Israel’s agriculture sector alongside about 15,000 Palestinians, she said.

The two workers killed Tuesday were typical of the 18,728 officially registered as of April with Thailand’s Labor Ministry as working in Israel, which hosts the second largest numbers of overseas Thai workers after Taiwan.

“Weerawat had a wife and 21-year-old and 12-year-old daughters. And he also provided for his elderly parents. He went to Israel in 2018 and worked hard, sending money home...