BANGKOK, March 29 (Xinhua) -- A government plan to build houses for Myanmar migrant workers in southern Thai mangrove forests has met with opposition in the country, for its possible adverse ecological consequences.
Thon Thamrongnawasawat, deputy dean of Kasetsart University's Faculty of Fisheries, told reporters Tuesday that he was strongly opposed to the Ministry of Interior's planned lodging units' construction there.
The lodging units, covering some 80 acres of land in the mangrove forests of Ranong province, about 570 km south of the Thai capital, will house around 46,000 Myanmar migrants, most of whom are currently being employed in the province's fishing industry.
The Ministry of Interior is seeking cabinet approval for the lodging projects.
The southern mangrove forests have already been declared by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources as deteriorated, and they remain beyond the reach of high tides from the Andaman Sea.
Thon called on the government to have the deteriorated mangrove swamps restored to the extent that they will remain as forest reserves instead of turning them into lodging units.
