Since the Hamas attack, the bodies of foreign nationals killed in the kibbutz have been repatriated from Israel. But the deaths of Asian farm workers have gone relatively unnoticed. Many, who did not have their papers with them, have not yet been identified.
Countries around the world continue to react and be moved after the Hamas attack on Israel on Saturday October 7. Concerns span a broad spectrum, from internal or external political reactions, to the repatriation of the living and the dead.
For example, the government of Kenya, to defend its support for the Jewish state, must fight against popular sentiment aroused by the Shebab Islamists: the terrorist group, associated with Al-Qaeda, regularly commits attacks in Kenya and has brought its support for Hamas. In Japan, the government wanted to remain cautiously neutral towards the Middle East region, which provides 90% of its energy supplies. But he has just aligned himself with the position of the G7 countries, which he chairs this year, and agreed to describe the attack as “terrorist”. A less well-known situation concerns countries, particularly Asian ones, which supply Israel with agricultural labor, and which included many workers murdered on October 7. While the living are sometimes bound by annual contracts and are not allowed to leave Israel, the dead have not yet been identified.
The confusing situation of foreign agricultural workers who died on site
Thailand, which pays a heavy price for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with 21 deaths, is the largest contingent of foreign deaths after the United States. The majority of them are workers who have come to work in the agricultural sector. The first returnees arrived at Bangkok airport at the end of last week. They were weak, some in wheelchairs but immensely happy to finally be safe and close to their families. The injured were given priority to return to the country, they spoke of the chilling scenes, of the massacres they witnessed, while many tried to hide in the dormitories reserved for foreign workers near the kibbutzim.
One of them wanted to highlight the still very confused situation of foreign workers who died on site: “There were deaths of many nationalities, especially Israelis and Palestinians. They have already been buried, according to their respective religions. But I can tell you that there were also Thai, Filipino, Vietnamese, Burmese and Laotian deaths. Workers but also students… We put them in plastic bags, in cold rooms, separately, with their passports if they had them, or any other proof that we could find. From now on, we will have to do DNA tests, because many had nothing on them and have not yet been identified.”
Contracts lasting several years that bind them to their employers
The Thai government is currently working to repatriate 5,000 nationals. The attacks highlighted the little-known situation of Thai and Asian workers in Israel, who left to carry out agricultural work, through agencies, on contracts lasting several years. Thousands of them now wish to return to Thailand, but according to testimonies on social networks, employers are opposed to their return before the end of their contracts. While the country is rarely involved in international crises of this magnitude, the negotiations to bring back these workers and around fifteen hostages held in the Gaza Strip are a test for the new Thai government.