Dozens of illegal job seekers arrested near Myanmar border

In two Kanchanaburi towns, workers were attempting to work in Thailand and Malaysia.

116 Myanmar citizens were detained in the northern county of Sangkhla Buri this week for entering Thailand without permission.

The 134th Border Patrol Police received a report on Wednesday that Pol Col Paitoon Sriwilai, director of the Sangkhla Buri Police Station, had been in contact with a large number of immigrants in the tambon Nong Lu.

Officers found 116 people — 72 men and 44 people — sitting on the ground in a wooden forest.

A Thai-speaking person claimed to have traveled from Payathonzu, a frontier town where there has been a crackdown on Chinese-run scam companies. They entered Thailand via a normal way, they said.

They were waiting for a bus to pick them up to go to operate in Nonthaburi, Samut Prakan, Bangkok and Samut Sakhon, while some were travelling eastward to Malaysia. They claimed they had paid a Myanmar agent 18, 000 to 20, 000 ringgit each.

Some people claimed they had been waiting two or three days for pickup. ( Story continues below )

116 unlawful immigrants from Myanmar were discovered in the Kanchanaburi district’s Sangkhla Buri neighborhood. ( Photo: Piyarach Chongcharoen )

In Thong Pha Phum district, however, 45 illegal workers were arrested in the early days of Wednesday.

According to the police, they admitted giving brokers up to 70, 000 ringgit each for jobs promised to them in Thailand’s or Malaysia’s internal regions. &nbsp,

Based on information that outlawed employment seekers were being smuggled in by ship across the pond and would get at the Ban Khanun Khee wharf, a group of police, soldiers, and local officials were dispatched to the Vajiralongkorn dam at 1:30 am.

When the officers arrived, a pickup truck carrying Kanchanaburi license plates was now waiting at the wharf, according to city key Chakrit Tanphiroon. &nbsp,

The delivery driver soon fled, abandoning the vehicle. The pickup’s passengers included a huge number of men and women who had just departed the area. After that, they were arrested.

Authorities said 45 people were arrested. They claimed they had slept quite small and had not been fed any meal and were exhausted.

Food and water were provided for them by the imprisoning group.

The detainees walked to a wharf behind a sanctuary where 4 or 5 vessels were moored during questioning and claimed that they had been brought into Thailand along a healthy border crossing in the Sangkhla Buri district by an interpreter.

They boarded the canoes, which brought them to the Ban Khanun Khee jetty.

Some of them received job promises, some in the internal regions of Thailand, and others in Malaysia.

Those wanting function in Thailand had each paid agents in Myanmar 13, 000 to 15, 000 rmb, depending on the distance to their offices. The price for work in Malaysia was 70, 000 ringgit each.

All were taken to the Thong Pha Phum authorities place for legitimate action and eventually relocation to Myanmar. &nbsp,

The 45 Myanmar citizens are awaiting their imprisonment at a police stop in Kanchanaburi’s Thong Pha Phum area for unlawful entry. ( Photo: Piyarach Chongcharoen )