At a church in Udon Thani province, the family of the 32-year-old migrant worker organized a vigil to call for his release. Along with five other compatriots and at least one Nepali, they are the forgotten faces of the tragedy. The tears of his mother, Wiwwaro, who asks for an end to this “brutal war” in which “everyone has suffered enough.” Last week, Prime Minister Shinawatra met with the Iranian president to ask him to mediate the release.
Bangkok () – The Sriaoun family gathered this weekend in a church in northeastern Thailand to pray and ask again for the release of Watchara, which has been in the hands of Hamas, in Gaza, for a year. Watchara Sriaoun is one of six Thai migrant workers – out of a total of 41 initially – who are still being held since October last year by the militias that control the Strip. For 12 long months his family, together with friends and faithful from the local Protestant Christian community, have organized prayer vigils for his return, so far without result, and even the news about his situation is fragmentary.
The 32-year-old migrant worker is originally from the village of Kut Yang, in the northeastern province of Udon Thani, and was captured on October 7, the day of the attack, while he was at Kibbutz Nir Oz. “The only thing we can do is ask God,” said Wiwwaro Sriaoun, Watchara’s mother. “Asking people doesn’t give us any answers, and not even the village chief or the person in charge can confirm anything” about their situation.
Yesterday, October 7, one year after the Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza, among the various commemorations for the victims and the hostages, celebrations and prayer vigils were also organized in the countries of origin of the foreign workers who They are in the hands of the extremist group that controls the Strip. Migrants from several Asian countries, from Thailand to Nepal, some of whom have been in the hands of kidnappers for a year and who have often been defined as “the forgotten face” of this tragedy, because it has fallen on them for a long time. a long silence, and to this day his fate remains “uncertain.” Among them are some Thai citizens, for whose release the Bangkok government continues to work. The latest attempt was last week, when Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra met with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to ask for Tehran’s support for the release of Thai migrants. Previously, the Executive had knocked on the doors of other intermediaries, such as Qatar and Tehran, when the late Ebrahim Raisi was president.
During the attack that Hamas calls the “Al-Aqsa flood”, 41 Thai workers were killed and nearly thirty were kidnapped. At the time, the repatriation of the victims’ bodies shocked the entire Southeast Asian country and, at the same time, recalled Israel’s dependence on foreign workers, especially in agriculture, many of whom came from Asia. Before the attack, an estimated 30,000 Thai immigrants were working in Israel.
In the following weeks, the Bangkok government organized the evacuation and repatriation of at least 12,000 fellow citizens, who preferred to forego compensation for fear of a new attack and returned to their country of origin. After some time and the initial shock had passed, there was a reversal of the trend: around 600 Thais returned to Israel earlier this year despite the war. In recent months, Thai Labor Minister Phiphat Ratchakitprakarn also visited Israel to request an increase in quotas for migrant workers, most of whom come from areas such as Buriram province. In Israel they work as laborers and gardeners and can earn up to $1,800 a month.
Watchara and his younger brother traveled to Israel in 2020 hoping to pay off the family debt of around 300,000 baht (just under $9,000) and earn money for their father’s medical expenses. Between them they sent home 50,000 baht a month to contribute to the family’s expenses and renovate the house in the heart of rural Thailand. After a while, the minor returned home at his mother’s request.
With a portion of the 3 million baht compensation he received in July from the Israeli government, the family paid off the debt and purchased land that Watchara himself had promised to buy for his mother. Today her absence, and the lack of reliable news, weigh more every day, especially for her daughter, Irada, nine years old, who also lost her mother last August. “I would like this brutal war to end,” Wiwwaro told Reuterswith tears in his eyes. “Everyone has suffered enough and I have also suffered too much in vain waiting for my son.”
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