A group of university students plan legal action against two firms which lured dozens with the false promise of summer internships in Singapore.
Students have been filing complaints since last week about two Thai agencies which took their money in exchange for promises they would get work training in Singapore, without telling them they weren’t even eligible.
The students never knew they were ineligible for the program while the agencies shipped them off to Singapore with forged documents, leading to trouble for some of them and others to be sent home without completing their internships.
The “Internship in Singapore” program is similar to the famous U.S. Work & Travel system, which allows students to obtain a job at places like restaurants and hotels in exchange for money and experience living abroad.
However, the Singaporean program is only open to students from Chulalongkorn, Thammasat and Prince of Songkla universities.
Two brokerage agencies in question are Go Abroad Education Group and Study Plus, who collected THB25,000 – THB45,000 processing fee from each student for a guarantee to intern three months in Singapore.
Chalida Nontapaoraya, a student of Srinakharinwirot University, says she traveled to Singapore last month to work at Hotel Royal @ Queens. After working for five days, she found out the document the agency submitted on her behalf was forged. After discussing the issue with the hotel’s human resources, Chalida and her friends were forced to quit the job.
Meanwhile, Chadarat Lertprakaisap from Ratchapat Chankaserm University says she was also fired from Marriott Singapore after the hotel discovered her documents were forged.
Last week 40 Thai students were reportedly questioned by the Singaporean government and had their passports were confiscated after authorities there made random inspections and found their work documents were forged, according to Pattaya Mail.
Their passports were returned Friday.
Many of the students have turned to The Pavena Foundation, which has picked up their cause and is helping them to gather information to help sue the agencies, Thairath and Bangkok Post reported.
