Despite trauma of Oct. 7, Thai workers again flock to Israel for work

BANGKOK — Thailand, which sustained the highest losses among foreign nationals in the bloody Hamas rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, is allowing 10,000 impoverished citizens to fly to Israel for better-paying jobs in the desert “safe areas.”

A flight carrying 100 Thai laborers flew out of Bangkok on Tuesday, the Reuters news service reported. Thai officials said a second flight has been booked for next month.

During its terrorist attack on Israel in October, Hamas killed 41 Thais and took dozens more hostage. Six Thai nationals are thought to be among those still held in the Gaza Strip as the war with Israel rages.

The offer of good-paying jobs remains a potent lure for Thais living in some of the country’s most economically depressed regions. Bangkok said it is taking steps to ensure they won’t be caught again in the crossfire 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,” said Thai Labor Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn.

On May 26, Mr. Phiphat traveled to Tel Aviv to lobby for an increase in the quota of Thai men and women ages 25-41 who 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.

In the days and weeks after the Oct. 7 attack, Bangkok organized dozens of emergency flights to bring home more than 7,000 Thai nationals from Israel. Another 1,500 reportedly left Israel on their own.

More than 30,000 Thais are interested in agricultural, factory and construction jobs in Israel’s deserts, including more than 25,000 awaiting placement under a Thailand-Israel cooperation agreement, the Bangkok Post reported this month.

Bangkok asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to allow 45,000 Thais to work in the country, but the Israeli Population and Immigration Authority fixed an annual quota of 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, representing more than half of the estimated foreign nationals killed, according to the most recent estimates.

More than 35,000 Palestinian fighters and civilians have been killed in Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, and efforts to reach a 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,” Orna Sagiv, Israeli ambassador to Thailand, said in an open letter published on May 14.

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.

Hamas began releasing its Thai hostages last year thanks to a surprise deal brokered by Thailand’s Muslim political and religious leaders who met with 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-Hamas war.

Shortly after the fighting erupted, nearly 5,000 terrified workers were evacuated back to Thailand. An additional 20,000 Thais remained 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 its stability and attractiveness as an economic magnet. The Israeli Embassy in Bangkok reportedly assured the Thai 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,” Ms. 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 sought workers from Sri Lanka, Malawi and Latin America to take jobs that are hard to fill and is 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 difficult jobs in Israel despite the instability and fighting that have long characterized the region. Many are young men from the northeastern part of the country, where entire families often go into debt to pay for airfare and other expenses. They hope to receive remittances from the young men’s 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.

Some Thais were reluctant to evacuate Israel even after the October assault because they needed to repay hundreds of dollars owed to Thai middlemen who arranged for them to get work on farms and construction sites.

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, Ms. Sagiv posted big photographs of individual hostages on 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 vehicles from the Israeli Embassy along the main streets.

“I honestly do not know what we should do. There’s no guideline for that,” she told journalists.

The Thai government, careful not to offend either side in the conflict, criticized her public campaign.

“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. “In the realm of defense, our close cooperation has bolstered Thailand’s security capabilities, enabling the country to better defend itself against external threats,” she said.

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.