10 Burmese migrant workers arrested in Songkhla
10 Burmese migrant workers were arrested this morning at a rubber plantation near the Malaysian border in the southern Thai province of Songkhla. Police say 7 migrant workers managed to evade capture.
A combination of provincial and immigration police went to the plantation that is near the Dan Nok Village, opposite Malaysia’s Kedah State, in anticipation of a van full of migrant workers that would arrive around 7am. 10 of the Burmese nationals were then arrested and 7 others escaped. The van driver, 35 year old Athiwat Siwasutham, was also detained.
Athiwat says he was employed by a Burmese agent to take the 17 workers from a rented house in Ban Rai to a rubber plantation. They had left the rental house around 4am and got to the rubber plantation some 3 hours later. He says the workers were supposed to be taken across the border into Malaysia by a different man, who had been paid 1,500 baht a head to take the workers to the border.
The Burmese workers say they are from the Rakhine State in Myanmar and that they had paid between 20,000 to 30,000 baht each to agents to get jobs in Malaysia. The workers and the driver were given to the Sadao police for further legal proceedings. The police say they are still looking for the 7 workers that got away.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
