Police intercepted three pickups with 50 illegal Myanmar migrants on board in Rattaphum district in Songkhla yesterday.
The vehicles were pulled over at the Phru Pho checkpoint on the Asian highway for a search.
The first two vehicles held 37 men and 13 women passengers, all of working age. The other pickup was carrying the luggage of the 50 illegal migrants.
The three Thai drivers — Thanes Phungtambon, 34, Pongsakorn Sarikama, 40, and Kris Deeprom, 38 — were detained along with their passengers for investigation.
The drivers said they were hired to take their passengers from Prachuap Khiri Khan to Hat Yai, Songkhla. They were to be paid 20,000 baht upon completing the job. They admitted to having done it three times previously, police said.
The migrants and their drivers were handed over to Rattaphum police for legal proceedings. The migrants were to be charged with illegal entry and the drivers with providing assistance to illegal migrants.
Meanwhile, 30 illegal job seekers from Myanmar on their way to Malaysia were arrested at a sugarcane plantation in Muang district of Ratchaburi on Tuesday night.
Local police, immigration officers and officials detained the men and women near a canal at village Moo 4 in tambon Khok Mor around 7pm after a resident who was going fishing discovered strangers hiding among the sugar plants.
There were 26 men and four women and all were illegal migrants from Myanmar.
During questioning they said via an interpreter that they had sneaked into the country via the Phu Nam Ron border checkpoint in Kanchanaburi province and someone later drove them to the plantation in Ratchaburi province. They were waiting for vehicles to take them to the border with Malaysia.
They had paid 35,000 baht each to job brokers.