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Thai, Filipino workers filling labor gap in Israel get caught up in war_我的网站

一 |     海峡网讯（记者 李牧晨 通讯员 何羚珊）8月21日，海杰航运“利雅得穆卡布”轮顺利靠泊福州港江阴港区，标志着2026年度中欧北极快航正式首靠福州港。    BANGKOK -- The first group of Thai workers evacuated from Israel after the past few days’ bloody events in southern Israel and Gaza arrived Thursday in the Thai capital of Bangkok, greeted by anxious relatives and senior officials.Hamas militants stormed through a border fence Saturday and killed hundreds of Israelis in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival. The Israelis have responded with punishing airstrikes and preparations for a possible ground invasion. The conflict has claimed at least 2,600 lives on both sides, including some Southeast Asian workers living in Israel.The 41 Thais who returned home on a commercial flight of the Israeli airline El Al included two men wounded in the violence who had to use wheelchairs to exit the aircraft.Farm laborers from Thailand seek work in more developed countries where there is a shortage of semi-skilled labor — at wages considerably higher than they can earn at home.Tens of thousands of workers in Israel from nations including Thailand and the Philippines send their earnings home to support their families. That money also helps to fire up their native countries’ economies.But the appearance of Thais and Filipinos on the lists of dead, wounded and missing in the past few days is a reminder that foreign workers toil in peril of their lives.About 30,000 Thais are working in Israel, according to the Thai Foreign Ministry, and about 5,000 of them live in the southern area near the border with Gaza.One of them, Katchakorn Pudtason, said his employer at the farm where he worked initially herded all his workers into a bunker when Saturday's attacks took place, but after they left it for lunch they could still hear shooting. As they were being driven back to their workplace, Katchakorn heard more gunshots and felt something hit his knee, he said.“I thought it was a rock but it went through. So I hit the truck and told the driver to drive away,” he said. He added that he was one of four people in the vehicle who suffered injuries that day. He was one of the two returnees who had to use a wheelchair.Thailand's Cabinet ministers for labor, defense and foreign affairs were at Bangkok's international airport for the evacuees' arrival. The government has vowed to look after the evacuees' physical and mental well-being.Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said 5,990 Thais have registered to be evacuated and officials are working around the clock to accommodate them.“We need a Plan B to take out as many people as possible,” said Defense Minister Suthin Klangsaeng. “We will use military aircraft to evacuate people from the high-risk area to a third country, such as (the United Arab Emirates).”The number of Thais affected by the tragedy stood out in lists of non-Israeli nationals affected by the violence: Thailand’s foreign ministry Thursday said 21 Thais are believed dead and 14 wounded. Sixteen were believed to have been taken hostage.Survivor Chatree Chasri left his home in northeastern Thailand in 2019 to work in Israel as an agricultural laborer to pay off debts and provide for his wife and two children back home in Nakhon Phanom. Foreign work is a common path for Thais from the country’s economically disadvantaged rural areas, especially the northeast.Working under a government-to-government agreement, the 38-year-old has been farming tomatoes and cauliflower for the past four years in the southern Israeli town of Mivtahim, less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) away from Israel’s border with Gaza.Despite the occasional shelling and rocket attacks that sent him running for cover, his life at the farm had been OK until Saturday, he said from Israel in a phone interview with The Associated Press. Now he says he wants to come home, and never go back to Israel.Chatree was shot several times in his hip shortly after Hamas launched its rocket attacks and shock ground offensive into southern Israel, killing hundreds of people and capturing more than 100 who were hauled back to Gaza as hostages.Chatree was using a toilet at the farm where he works with other foreign laborers when he suddenly heard gunshots.“The sounds came closer and bullets went through the wall of the toilet,” he said, recalling the moment he was hit. He then saw two gunmen making their way into the workers' living quarters and open fire, so the workers fled outside to hide.Vibhavadi Vannachai, a Thai expatriate who has lived in Israel for nearly two decades and is coordinating with Israeli authorities to help the Thai workers, fears the number of victims may rise.Vibhavadi, originally from Nong Bua Lamphu province in Thailand’s northeast, works as an interpreter in a legal office whose cases mostly involve resolving disputes between Thai workers and their employers.She said abuse and violations of their rights are common, with many bound by years-long contracts but cheated of their wages. Many are forced to work long hours and are beaten if they refuse. Some have to live in “quarters that are not fit for human beings,” she said.Vibhavadi helped find temporary accommodations for Chatree and Padoong Bootmo, a 26-year-old Thai worker shot on Saturday who said the potato and yam farm where he works in Yesha was raided twice by gunmen and then burned down. Padoong said in a phone interview he had been able to send 40,000 baht ($1,100) home each month. He might under the best of circumstances make less than half that doing the same job in Thailand, but he said he doesn’t want to stay in Israel anymore.The killing of at least two Filipino foreign workers underscored the threats also faced by those workers in Israel. About 30,000 Filipinos live and work in the country many as caregivers who look after the elderly, the ill and those with physical disabilities, according to the Philippines' foreign ministry. The huge income they send back home, which last year amounted to an all-time high of $36.14 billion, has helped keep the country’s fragile economy afloat.One of the two Filipinos killed Saturday was a caregiver who was shot with her employer inside their house by Hamas gunmen, according to the Philippines Embassy in Israel. The other was killed under still-unclear circumstances.At least three Filipinos remain missing, embassy officials have said.Still, Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said Wednesday that no Filipino has asked to be repatriated from Israel. Jeremiah Supan, a 34-year-old Filipino caregiver in Israel, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Wednesday that he made it clear to Philippines officials he did not want to return home. As the family breadwinner, he sends his earnings home to enable his 10-year-old son to remain in school and sustain other loved ones."The rocket firings continue” Supan said. “But if I leave, all that assistance that I send to my family back home will be lost.”___Gomez reported from Manila. Associated Press writer Grant Peck contributed.。本航次为该航线今年首次挂靠福建，福州江阴港区也是本次航次全省唯一挂靠港口，进一步畅通了我省对欧绿色、高效海上物流通道。         据了解，中欧北极快航依托北极东北航道通行，相较传统苏伊士运河航线，航程缩短超15天，运输时效显著提升，同时有效规避传统远洋航线复杂地缘风险，船舶航行碳排放减少约30%，具备时效快、安全性高、绿色低碳等突出优势。航线主要承载我省新能源、新材料等外贸重点货物出口，为福建“新三样”产品远销欧洲搭建了稳定高效的海上大动脉。    为保障本次首航船舶安全、高效完成靠泊装卸作业，福州海事局提前部署、精准施策，全面落实全过程安全监管与便民服务举措。该局提前开展通航环境风险研判，结合季节气象、航道条件、港口作业特点，梳理航行靠泊、货物装卸等关键环节风险点，主动对接码头、航运企业，督促落实安全生产主体责任，细化完善作业保障方案。         作业期间，福州海事局依托“现场巡航+电子巡查”双防管控模式，实时掌握船舶动态及港区作业秩序，严格核查船舶适航状态、船员履职情况及集装箱绑扎系固安全条件，全程紧盯现场作业安全，及时排查整治水域安全隐患。同时主动联动引航、拖轮、港口运营等相关单位，畅通信息共享渠道，优化船舶进出港、靠离泊保障流程，最大限度压缩船舶在港周转时间，持续提升港口通关作业效能。         近年来，福州港江阴港区持续加密国际集装箱航线网络，北极快航的常态化运行，进一步丰富了我省远洋航运布局。下一步，福州海事局将持续聚焦外贸航运保通保畅，不断优化海事监管服务举措，强化重点国际航线、重点外贸船舶全链条安全保障，全力保障跨境物流通道安全高效畅通，助力福州港打造区域性国际航运枢纽，服务地方外向型经济高质量发展。

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