Thai Job Seekers Warned Over Australia Work Visa Scammers

 

Thailand’s labour Ministry has released a statement warning Thai Job Seekers of scammer offering agricultural jobs in Australia. Scammers are offering they can get job seekers a work visa immediately.

Thailand’s Labour Minister, Suchart Chomklin said the Australian government has yet to finalize the agricultural visa scheme so those looking for work need to be careful about such claims.

Minister Suchart said the work visa scam follows a decision by the GoverThai nationals applying for overseas jobs must go through legal channels in order to receive a reasonable salary and be protected from crimes such as human trafficking,” said the Labour Minister said.

The Australian embassy in Bangkok also stated on its website that the details of the new work visa are still being finalized.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s Employment Department Director-General, Pairoj Chotikasathien said last year, his department brought legal actions against 96 scammers. Fraudsters who duped 205 Thai Job Seekers into paying them a total of 17.8 million baht. The Job Seekers paid the money in hopes of finding employment overseas.

Most of the victims were looking to work in Canada, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Australia, he said.

The Director-General also warned Thai Job Seekers to avoid paying cash upfront to employment agents. He said people should only transfer money to agents that are legally licenced by authorities.

Mr. Pairoj said before applying for any jobs overseas, all Thai Nationals must inform Thailand’s Employment Department and depart through the job-seeker channel at airports.

In order to pass through the job-seeker channel at airports to work abroad legally, all Thai workers must be vouched for by Thailand’s Labour Department and their overseas employers.

Source - Read even more trending CTN Newsnment of Australia to issue work visas that would allow its holders to work in the country’s agricultural sector for three years. The visa would also allow the workers to return to their home countries for three months each year.

The agricultural work holder would also be eligible to apply for permanent residency in Australia after 3 years.

While the visa scheme has been announced, However, the Australia n government has yet to actually issue any visas. Job seekers in Thailand need to be wary of scammers claiming to be able to fast-track their applications.

“All job seekers who wish to work in Australia or other countries should thoroughly check the job position and requirements. The Thai government offers access to legal recruitment firms, 125 of which have been certified. Job seekers can access information by going to the website of the Employment Department at ‘doe.go.th/ipd‘.

Australia Work Visas Still Being Finalized

Thai nationals applying for overseas jobs must go through legal channels in order to receive a reasonable salary and be protected from crimes such as human trafficking,” said the Labour Minister said.

The Australian embassy in Bangkok also stated on its website that the details of the new work visa are still being finalized.

Meanwhile, Thailand’s Employment Department Director-General, Pairoj Chotikasathien said last year, his department brought legal actions against 96 scammers. Fraudsters who duped 205 Thai Job Seekers into paying them a total of 17.8 million baht. The Job Seekers paid the money in hopes of finding employment overseas.

Most of the victims were looking to work in Canada, Japan, South Korea, Sweden and Australia, he said.

The Director-General also warned Thai Job Seekers to avoid paying cash upfront to employment agents. He said people should only transfer money to agents that are legally licenced by authorities.

Mr. Pairoj said before applying for any jobs overseas, all Thai Nationals must inform Thailand’s Employment Department and depart through the job-seeker channel at airports.

In order to pass through the job-seeker channel at airports to work abroad legally, all Thai workers must be vouched for by Thailand’s Labour Department and their overseas employers.

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#Indonesia - Govt seeks to create ‘travel bubbles’ to help tourism recover

The government is seeking to create “travel bubbles” with China, South Korea, Japan and Australia, which are known for their achievements in handling the COVID-19 outbreak, as the nation enters its so-called new normal period.

The term “travel bubble”, or “travel corridor”, refers to an agreement in which countries succeeding in containing the outbreak open their borders to each other to allow free movement within the bubble.

The Office of the Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister’s undersecretary for tourism and the creative economy, Oto Manuhutu, said his office was discussing the matter with the Foreign Ministry as well as the Tourism and Creative Economy Ministry.

“The four countries were chosen because many tourists and foreign investors in Indonesia come from those countries,” Oto said on Friday, as quoted by Antara.

Despite the plan, he added that business-people would probably be the first and only ones to travel to and from those countries in the near future. “Hopefully, tourists will gradually follow to visit [Indonesia] after the investors.”

Oto went on to say that the Foreign Ministry was discussing the requirements for travel bubbles before signing agreements with the four countries.

“The travel bubbles would open two to four weeks after the agreements are signed while taking into consideration health, security and technical aspects,” said Oto.

Experts have said that the government’s move to ease COVID-19 restrictions might worsen conditions, as the country has yet to reach its peak in the epidemiological curve.

Source - TheJakartaPost

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They told people not to come': #Australia's bushfires ravage tourism industry

Pillars of fire and smoke from bushfires are tarnishing Australia's reputation for pristine vistas abounding in wildlife and wreaking havoc on tourism, operators say, as authorities are forced to cancel concerts, close parks and evacuate towns.

The smoke has shrouded entire cities and driven air quality to unhealthy levels, with at least 10 people dying in the fires in the past week, while colonies of animals such as koalas and flying foxes have been destroyed.

"Seeing all the images of fires on television and social media is not going to help, it puts a dent in Australia's reputation as a safe tourist destination," said Shane Oliver, chief economist at AMP Capital.

"It's come at a time when the economy was already fragile," he added, ranking tourism as Australia's fourth biggest export whose strength officials had been counting on to help offset a domestic reluctance to spend.

Bushfires burning for weeks near the world heritage site of the Blue Mountains west of Sydney in the southeastern state of New South Wales have driven away tourists.

As visitors take to social media to warn others to steer clear, the number of busloads of tourists each day has fallen to about four from 15 or 20, said Stacey Reynolds, a receptionist at the Blue Mountains Backpacker Hostel in Katoomba.

"They told people not to come in and it's affected everything, from restaurants to motels to backpackers to cafes," she added. "The streets are empty."

Although there is no published nationwide data on tourism since the fires took hold in late spring, Australia attracted 2.71 million holiday makers last summer, up 3.2% from the previous year, as many fled the northern hemisphere winter.

Hotels in the largest city of Sydney saw a fall of 10% in guest numbers in December, the Accommodation Association of Australia said.

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"The fires and the smoke have had a real brand and reputational damage in Sydney," added its chief executive, Dean Long.

The train and cable network of Scenic World in the Blue Mountains had 50,000 fewer visitors in December, down 50% from last year, Chief Experience Officer Amanda Byrne said.

Scenic World was open, but the hotels around the area are having more cancellations than bookings, she said.

Government agency Tourism Australia, which released a new advertisement last month to lure Britons to beautiful beaches and stunning scenery, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The scorching temperatures and bushfires, which have also burnt vineyards in South Australia and warmed the usually cool island state of Tasmania, will hit the sector hard, said Judith Mair, who studies tourism, environment and consumer behavior.

"It will be in stages - immediately with evacuations, dislocations and cancellations, but also in the longer term, because tourists buy holidays based on the image of a destination and Australia's is being badly affected," said Mair, a professor at the University of Queensland Business School.

Hundreds of national parks in the southeastern states of New South Wales and Victoria, thronged by 100 million visitors a year, have closed.

With fires burning nearby, Christopher Warren, co-proprietor of a bed and breakfast in Kangaroo Valley in New South Wales, said he had to evacuate his guests.

"The worst-case scenario is that we would be hit by a fire and our business would be destroyed," said Warren, who saw the best case as a loss of income exceeding A$80,000 ($56,048), through the disruption of three of his busiest months.

Paul Mackie, who uses AirBnB to rent out an apartment on Sydney's Bondi Beach to British and European tourists in the peak summer holiday period was hit by last-minute cancellations.

"I had bookings for the whole of this period going for the next couple of months, but a lot have cancelled because they said they saw the news of the fires," Mackie added.

AirBnB declined to comment.

A Sydney airport spokesman said it did not have recent statistics on whether the fires were hitting arrival. A Qantas spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the wildfires had hurt bookings.

The fires have spotlighted Australia's environment policies, criticized most recently at a U.N. summit in Madrid, said Susanne Becken, a professor of sustainable tourism at Griffith University in Queensland.

"The government's response to the climate crisis does not bode well...and this is not good for tourism," 

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Sydney to ease drinking rules to boost nightlife

Sydney's lackluster nightlife received a long-awaited boost when officials announced an end to rules severely limiting where and when people can drink alcohol.

New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian announced pubs' trading hours would be extended and laws curbing after-midnight drinking would be eased in most of central Sydney.

"We need to ensure we have a strong and vibrant night-time economy that reflects our position as Australia's only truly global city," said Berejiklian.

For a city famed for its New Year's Eve parties and weaned on alcohol -- rum was the currency of choice among early settlers -- Sydney is surprisingly dead at night.

Under famed "lock-out laws", bar doors close at 1:30 am, there are restrictions on serving cocktails, shots or "drinks in glass" after midnight, and bouncers and police hover over proceedings.

The measures were introduced in early 2014 to limit alcohol-related violence.

The laws have thrown up some tragicomic results -- with Madonna and Justin Bieber famously unable to attend their own after-parties because they arrived too late from gigs.

A TimeOut.com survey placed Sydney the 39th best city in the world in 2019, largely because residents ranked "our city worst in the world for nightlife".

The new laws take effect on 14 January

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Sydney breaks ground on new airport

Sydney-bound holidaymakers will soon have more options to reach Australia's largest city, which on Monday broke ground on a new US$3.6 billion airport. 

"Western Sydney Airport" is scheduled to open in 2026 as part of an effort to deal with booming air traffic numbers.

"It's great to see this happening," said Prime Minister Scott Morrison at the opening. "This issue has been around for longer than I have been living on the planet," he added, joking about long-running planning delays.

The number of air passengers globally is projected to nearly double to 7.8 billion by 2036.

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 Sydney is expected to double passenger numbers within the next two decades, with low cost airlines continuing to provide much of the growth -- driving down fares on longer routes and stimulating demand.

Supporters of the project say that even if flight restrictions on Sydney's current airport were lifted, it would not be able to handle expected passenger numbers.

In the first phase Western Sydney Airport will be able to handle around 10 million passengers a year, around a quarter of the current total landing at the present facility.

Source - TheJakartaPost

#Indonesia to import 75,000 tons of salt from #Australia

The government has issued an import permit for state-owned salt producer PT Garam to import 75,000 tons of raw salt material from Australia. The salt will enter Indonesia through three ports on Aug. 10.

"In 2016, we allocated 226,000 tons of salt imports, so we still have room. When the harvest returns to normal, we will stop importing," the Trade Ministry's foreign trade director general, Oke Nurwan, said in Jakarta on Friday.

He further said that the government would decide the price of table salt in the retailer market next week.

The ministry hopes that after the import is realized in August, the domestic supply of salt will gradually return to normal.

The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry’s director general for territorial sea management, Brahmantya Satyamurti, said the amount of domestic salt production was currently far from the normal production of 166,000 tons a month.

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“From May to July, salt farmers only managed to produce 6,200 tons, which is far from normal,” he said.

The Trade Ministry has ensured that salt distribution in the market will be tightly monitored by a food stability task force, which includes personnel from the police, the Business Competition Supervisory Commission (KPPU) and the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

Salt imports are regulated under the Law No. 7/2016 on the protection and empowerment of fishermen, fishers and salt farmers. It stipulates that import permits issued to PT Garam by the Trade Ministry requires a recommendation letter from the Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry.

 

Source - TheJakartaPost