Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha has asked the public to provide the authorities with any information they may have on illegal migrant smuggling networks which, he believes, are the cause of the latest COVID-19 outbreak in Samut Sakhon. He also asked people to be more careful and not to share misleading messages that could create panic or project a false image of Thailand abroad.

Prayut said the legal migrant workers in Thailand are not a cause of the problem, but those who have snuck in illegally are, because they didn’t go through the COVID-19 screening process. Related agencies have been ordered to investigate the migrant smuggling networks, and find factories which hire illegal workers.

Last night, some employers reportedly abandoned illegal workers on the street, fearing punishment for hiring them.

Prayut also asked the Interior and Labour ministries, and related agencies, to find appropriate solutions to register migrant workers.

In a statement, published on the Foreign Affair ministry’s website, Prayut asked the public for cooperation and to report to the Office of the Prime Minister any information related to smuggling networks and corruption.

Prayut also asked the media to report news that has been issued by the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration, or CCSA, and not to mislead the public or publish false information.

At the end of the statement, Prayut said the government knows the cause of the latest outbreak, and has already rolled out several measures to contain it. He assured the public that the current health measures in Thailand are efficient, and asked the public to believe that Thailand is doing better than many other countries.