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Thailand arrests one Thai people trafficker and 14 Cambodian workers who crossed into Thailand illegally to find work


Cambodia News, Thailand: According to a Thai website (สระ แก็ ว -77 เด้ ด), on June 16, 2020, the police authority of Sa Kaeo province under the direct command of Colonel Artat Yi Keo, director of the Sa Kaeo Immigration Office, arrested the suspect, 33-year-old Sarong Thong Thu, a Thai man, and seized a black pickup truck with license plate number 2 ล ล 437 that was being used to transport illegal Cambodian workers into Thailand..

Immigration authorities in Sa Kaeo, in cooperation with the Central Immigration Authority of Thailand, have arrested a group of 14 Cambodian migrant workers illegally crossing Thailand for work, as well as the Thai passer. After the Thai authorities took the photos and recorded them, they brought the Cambodian workers, along with the brokers, to the interrogation department to carry out the legal process.

Thai border authorities are catching illegal Cambodian migrant workers migrating to Thailand almost every day. Most of them (Khmer workers) are being smuggled into the corridors along the Thai-Cambodian border from Ou Chrov commune, O'Chrov and Boeung Traueng, in the district's Thmor Puok district, where there is a conspiracy between the people passers and the Cambodian border guards.

Cambodia News, Oddar Meanchey: According to a post by social media officials on the Thai border, two Cambodian suspects have been arrested by law enforcement forces after illegally importing 27 Cambodians across the border into Thai territory through Sangkat O-Smach, Samrong City, Oddar Meanchey Province on June 10, 2020.

According to the report of the Commissioner of Oddar Meanchey Provincial Police, on the morning of June 11, 2020, following the recommendation of Lt. Gen. Ly, the Oddar Meanchey Provincial Police Commissioner, the police force of the Samrong City Police Inspectorate cooperated with the border police forces in the arrest of two suspects in connection with illegally smuggling people from Cambodia into Thailand.

The 27 fraudulent Cambodians who attempted to cross into Thailand looking for work were from Prey Veng, Siem Reap, Banteay Meanchey and Oddar Meanchey provinces. All 27 victims have been charged by the authorities for education and have thumb printed a contract to promise to stop illegal crossings in the future. The two "people passers" will appear in Oddar Meanchey court on human trafficking charges.

From Thailand:
Police on look out for illegal border crossings
published : 21 Jun 2020 at 04:00
NONG KHAO: The Immigration Bureau (IB) is gearing up its efforts to prevent thousands of migrant workers from Laos and Cambodia from sneaking into Thailand illegally through natural channels to seek jobs.

Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang, chief of the IB, said on Saturday immigration police are concerned about illicit border crossings as the border is still closed to limit the spread of Covid-19.

Foreigners still aren't allowed to enter the kingdom, he said. Some migrants crossing the border illegally may bring viral infections with them which will not be caught by screening authorities, observers say.

Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda, the national police chief, had ordered him to get first-hand information in the four northeastern border provinces of Ubon Ratchathani, Si Sa Ket, Bung Kan and Nong Khai about possible crossings.

Ubon Ratchathani, Bung Kan and Nong Khai have borders with Laos while Ubon Ratchathani and Si Sa Ket have borders with Cambodia.

Pol Lt Gen Sompong was speaking yesterday when he met his immigration police at the Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge crossing point in Nong Khai.

"I ordered immigration police to work closely with border police and soldiers in in arresting illegal border crossers. More importantly, state officials themselves must not get involved with such offences," he said.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... -crossings

Thailand is in pretty rough shape itself. I guess no situation is so desperate that somebody worse off doesn’t look at it as an opportunity. Makes you wonder what kind of situations these people are headed into.

Meanwhile back here the government sits on its hands.


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From Thailand:
59 Cambodians caught trying to sneak across border
published : 10 Jul 2020 at 04:00

Nearly 60 Cambodian nationals were rounded up in Sa Kaeo's Ta Phraya district as they headed to work in the country illegally.

The arrest of the 59 Cambodians was part of a wider operation led by the Burapa army task force to crack down on people slipping into the country across the eastern border.

The operation, ordered by the task force commander Maj Gen Tharapong Malakham, was also mounted to keep out goods, including farm produce, smuggled into the country during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Cambodians were intercepted by soldiers on patrol in Ban Khlong Paeng in tambon Thap Sadet early yesterday.

The suspects, 25 of whom were women, failed to produce passports or other travel documents. They were charged with illegal entry.

Officials said the suspects came from Poi Pet, in Banteay Meanchey province. They entered Thailand through the porous natural borderline between border surveillance points 14 and 15.

They were waiting to be picked up by a trafficking gang who promised to take them to various provinces to work. The suspects told the authorities they paid the gang 3,000 each as a brokerage fee.

The Cambodians were remanded in custody at Ta Phraya police station.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1948920/

Combined force arrests 107 illegal Cambodian migrants within a day
By The Thaiger - July 11, 2020
Immigration officials in Sa Kaeo province, together with border police and the Thai military, have arrested 107 illegal immigrants since yesterday. Sa Kaeo lies about 200 kilometres east of Bangkok at the Cambodian border.

The commander of the Burapha Armed Forces (Tigers of the East) – the nickname of the military clique attached to the 2nd Infantry Division, the Queen’s Guard – ordered military personnel along the border to be on high alert for Cambodians attempting to cross the border without authorisation.
https://english.cambodiadaily.com/news/ ... ay-166603/

Migrants seeking work held in Chachoengsao for illegal entry
12 Jul 2020 at 04:00
Chachoengsao: Scores of Cambodian migrants, including children, were detained along with five suspected smugglers in Muang district yesterday.

They were discovered during a joint operation by police and soldiers from the Internal Security Operations Command. Those arrested were mostly migrants seeking to return to work in the kingdom amid the Covid-19 outbreak.

Pol Gen Natthorn Prosunthorn, director of the transnational crime suppression centre at the Royal Thai Police, yesterday told a press briefing five local traffickers were helping the 88 migrants cross illegally into the kingdom.

The pandemic appears to be subsiding in the kingdom. The last time authorities recorded a locally infected case was more than 40 days ago. The government has been gradually easing lockdown measures to reboot the economy.

The migrants and their smugglers were intercepted as an increasing number of foreign nationals enter the country through natural borders looking for work amid the easing of Covid-19 restrictions.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/1949784/

I think it would be safer to reopen the border to let migrant workers cross legally. On top of being able to check their papers, they could them test them for COVID-19 as well.

2 hrs ago

Cambodia News, Poipet: At the Poipet International Border Crossing Police Station, on July 18, 2020, there were 59 illegal Cambodian migrant workers sent back by Thai authorities, including 19 women and 2 children.

The above workers were educated and instructed by the border post police force and then handed over to the Poipet Samchat Center Workers' Reception Team for further work.

Please take note that Thai authorities continue to close the border gates with Cambodia; they are not yet open to passengers, but only for emergency medical cases and trucks transporting essential cargo between the two countries.

There's hope, Thailand has finally announced that they'll let migrant workers back in. How that will work with the silly quarantine requirement remains to be seen.