79 Burmese arrested travelling close to the Malaysian border
| Friday, 07 May 2010 17:33
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| At 00:15 on Friday 7th May, 79 Burmese were arrested at Chumphon check-point. The Burmese were travelling on a double decker bus from Maha Chai to Songkhla, a Malaysian border town, according to Thailand’s Thai Rat newspaper.
The local authorities received information that a double decker bus No-3250 would carry 100 Burmese migrant workers from Maha Chai so a Chumphon police officer, Chala Phonena, stopped and checked the bus at region-9 police station, Wonphai village, Chumphon. 1 Cambodian, 59 males and 20 females Burmese migrant workers were arrested. Two drivers and a bus conductor would be charged with Human-trafficking and the arrested migrants on the bus would be charged with illegally entering the country” said the police officer. According to interrogation, many gave their statement that they go for working at Songkla and the rest would enter to Malaysia. According to the drivers statement each migrant paid 1,500 Baht each to be taken on this trip across the border. According to Thai media, within a few days, more than one hundred illegal migrants were arrested entering Thailand at the Three Pagodas border pass as well as on boats caught entering Thailand along the Ranong Province border with Burma. Due to economic instability and severe difficulties maintaining livelihoods, Burmese migrants try to enter Thailand whichever way they can in order to find work. |
