How did so many Thais get held hostage by Hamas?

Five Thai nationals held by Hamas were released last week, meaning nearly all the Thai hostages seized during the attack on 7 October have now been freed.

These hostages were part of a community of tens of thousands of Thai agricultural labourers working in Israel, where they can earn up to five times more than they can at home – but not without running a number of risks.

Strategic recruitment of workers

Thai workers started arriving in Israel during the late 1980s. Previously, Israel had "relied heavily" on labour from Palestinian workers but it started "bringing in large numbers of migrant workers" after the start of the Palestinian uprising known as the first Intifada, said AP.

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In the face of the Palestinian violence, it was a "strategic decision" to replace Palestinian workers with migrant ones, so Israel "wouldn't have this dependence", research anthropologist Matan Kaminer told Nikkei Asia.

By 1992, there were thousands of Thai agricultural "trainees" and "volunteers" in Israel, according to Kaminer. They are almost all male, and generally come from poorer areas of Thailand, especially the northeast.

The main driver for these men to seek work in Israel is that they can earn significantly more than they can in Thailand. Working on Israeli farms, Thais can pocket around $1,000 USD (£800) per month, compared to less than $200 (£160) at home. But wages are still low by Israeli standards, and the workers face other serious issues.

Unsafe working conditions

In 2020, a report from the workers' rights NGO Kav LaOved found that 83% of Thais in Israel were paid below the legal minimum wage, that many did not receive legally assured entitlements, and that they faced unsafe working conditions and lack of access to medical care.

"Similar issues" were reported by Human Rights Watch in 2015 and, in 2022 , a US State Department Trafficking in Persons Report described "the treatment of some Thai workers in Israel's agricultural sector as forced labour", said the Financial Times.

Things got much more serious on and after 7 October, when 40 Thai nationals were killed by Hamas, and 54 were taken hostage – "almost a quarter of the total of 220 captives". Most of the hostages were released in November 2024. After the release of five more last week and the reported death of two, it's thought only one remains captive.

In the aftermath of 7 October, some 7,000 Thais returned home, "primarily on Thai government evacuation flights", said AP. In the face of this new labour shortage, Israel's agriculture ministry announced new incentives, including extended work visas and pay bonuses of about $500 (£400) a month.

The perks promise is working: during 2024, Thailand's Labour Ministry granted 3,966 Thais permission to work in Israel. And last week, the Thai ambassador to Israel announced that there are now more than 38,000 Thai workers in the country, said AP.