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This Week in AsiaPeople

Despite dangers, Asia’s migrant workers return to Israel, risk it all as Gaza war grinds on

  • Despite the danger, some Thais are willing to return to Israel to earn salaries several times higher than in the farming communities they left behind
  • Sri Lankans could also help plug conflict-induced labour shortages, with the government in Colombo keen to harvest the benefits of remittances

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A Thai agricultural worker tends to a field near the central Israeli city of Beersheba in 2021. Thais in Israel can earn many times the monthly salary they would in the farming communities they leave behind. Photo: AFP
Phatsurang Dechabuddharungsi,Vasudevan SridharanandAidan Jones
As images emerged of exhausted Thai hostages being freed by Hamas after a weeks-long ordeal in Gaza, Panaphan Klongsuwan booked his return ticket to Israel, where an acute labour shortage following the outbreak of war has provided a dangerous incentive to get back to work.

“Most employers are doubling the pay for those who return,” the 37-year-old told This Week in Asia. “This is a fine opportunity I don’t want to miss.”

Before October 7, when Hamas militants tipped the region into crisis with a bloody incursion beyond the border fence of Gaza, Panaphan was a cowherd and agricultural worker in Israel earning around US$1,400 a month to send home. He returned to his hometown in the northern Thai province of Phrae on planned leave on November 7 – a month after the attack that killed 39 Thais alongside some 1,200 Israelis, with scores more taken hostage – as Thailand became among the foreign countries worst hit by the carnage.

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‘We survived’: Thai hostages celebrate their release by Hamas

‘We survived’: Thai hostages celebrate their release by Hamas

Gruesome videos of Thai labourers apparently being killed in the Hamas rampage have been widely circulated, while the air strikes that pounded Gaza’s civilian population, killing at least 15,000 – over a third of them children – were just a few short kilometres from the tomato, orange and banana farms many Thais labour in to feed Israel and its export economy.

Still, Panaphan is adamant his December 4 return to the Middle East will go ahead, as a rare window opens to beat the poverty trap that shapes the lives of millions of rural Thais.

“Opportunities don’t wait … the bank does not wait either,” he said from his Phrae hometown. “The house and car loans are in my father’s name so the debt belongs to my father. I earn a living on behalf of the whole family and I’ll work to pay off all the loans.”

On Thursday, 17 Thais returned to Bangkok, released by Hamas in prisoner exchanges – returning tired but delighted to have survived.

Thai hostages, who were previously released, hug their newly freed compatriots at the Shamir Medical Centre in Israel on Sunday. Photo: Thailand’s Foreign Ministry via AP
Thai hostages, who were previously released, hug their newly freed compatriots at the Shamir Medical Centre in Israel on Sunday. Photo: Thailand’s Foreign Ministry via AP
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