SBPAC to help find jobs for fishermen

SOUTHERN UNREST

SBPAC to help find jobs for fishermen

The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SBPAC) will help find jobs for about 5,000 young fishermen in the far South during the off-season, to help keep them away from the influence of the insurgency movement. Centre director Pranai Suwanrath said the centre has set aside 22 million baht to employ fishermen aged over 15 in 10 coastal districts of Songkhla, Pattani and Narathiwat provinces.

With the arrival of the monsoon season, fishermen are unable to put to sea and instead seek jobs as labourers. This makes them possible recruitment targets for leaders of the separatist movement.

Provincial and district agencies have been asked to create more social services related work, such as the conservation of natural resources, environmental development or repairing public utilities.

The job opportunities would be available to one person per one needy family for a one-month period, ending about February, he said.

The target was to find work for 850 people in Songkhla's Chana and Thepha districts, for 2,850 people in six districts of Pattani and 1,260 people in Narathiwat's Muang and Tak Bai districts.

They will be paid the daily minimum wage _ 152 baht in Songkhla and 148 baht in Pattani and Narathiwat.

The Public Health Ministry reported yesterday that the 973 violent incidents reported in the first nine months of the year in Yala, Narathiwat, Pattani, Satun and Songkhla provinces left 428 people dead and another 1,805 injured.

Most of the deaths were recorded in Narathiwat where 166 people were killed and 648 injured, followed by Yala with 111 killed and 566 injured.

In an effort to save more lives, the Public Health Ministry is offering basic life support training in mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions. So far, 200 people have volunteered for the training course at Sungai Kolok hospital in Narathiwat.

In Yala's Raman district, two travelling salesmen were killed in a drive-by shooting yesterday afternoon.

Rattaphumi Fanpimai, 30, was found dead along with an unidentified man in a pick-up truck loaded with mattresses and bedding products.