Labour officials are keeping a close eye on African tourists after finding several hundred of them are allegedly working in the Chanthaburi gem industry illegally.
There are currently about 700 African nationals in this eastern province, out of which 562 are working in the lucrative industry in Chanthaburi, according to the Chanthaburi immigration office.
"The problem is that most of them are on tourism visas or non-immigrant Type-O visas," Waranon Pitiwan, chief of the Department of Employment, said yesterday.
This prompted officials to conduct a thorough check of their status as well as the gem trading companies to make sure their work is in line with the law.
"We have to examine the companies' registration and check whether they even need to hire foreign workers," he said, adding officials will also base their inspections on a law which sets the appropriate proportion of foreign labourers at workplaces.
An initial investigation found there are a total of 306 companies registered as gem businesses in the province, Mr Waranon said, citing records he obtained from Chanthaburi immigration office.
The office also classified 562 African workers according to their countries for further inspection. Up to 442 Africans are from Guinea, followed by 72 from Mali and 12 from Gambia, he said.
He said his department also found 14 African nationals working as English teachers and their status would also be checked to see if they breached the law.