28-3-2024 (BANGKOK) In a series of busts over two days, Thai authorities in Kanchanaburi province have arrested a total of 79 Myanmar nationals in five separate groups for illegally crossing the border into Thailand. Additionally, five smugglers who facilitated the border crossings were also apprehended.
The first incident unfolded on Wednesday morning when a joint team of police, soldiers, and local officials, acting on a tip-off, discovered nine Myanmar men hiding underneath a house in Tambon Tha Khanun of Thong Pha Phum district around 10 am. All nine were charged with illegal entry from Myanmar, while the house owner, Bunlert Borisut, was detained for aiding the men in evading arrest.
Later the same day, police manning a road checkpoint at the Thong Pha Phum intersection in Tambon Tha Khanun signalled a pickup truck bearing Kanchanaburi licence plates to stop, but the driver sped off. In a daring move, Pol Sub-Lt Somphob Khankham, the deputy crime suppression chief at the Thong Pha Phum station, jumped onto the bed of the fleeing pickup but was unable to stop the driver.
Other officers promptly gave chase, and the driver eventually brought the vehicle to a halt at the Ong Thi intersection, about 5 km from the checkpoint, before fleeing into the forest. However, authorities managed to apprehend him shortly after. The driver was identified as Phongchok Worngwong-aree, a 43-year-old resident of Tambon Tha Khanum. Seven men and three women from Myanmar were found in the pickup truck and were subsequently arrested.
According to Phongchok’s statement to the police, he had been hired for 8,000 baht by a Myanmar national to transport the illegal migrants from Sangkhla Buri district to the Ban Phaeo intersection in Samut Sakhon province, where someone else was supposed to take over and transport them to their intended jobs.
The migrants, speaking through an interpreter, revealed that they had entered Thailand on foot via a natural crossing near the Three Pagodas Pass in Sangkhla Buri district, guided by a smuggler who helped them avoid numerous checkpoints. Each of them had paid a job broker between 8,000 and 10,000 baht for the illegal passage.
In a third incident around 6:30 pm on Wednesday, officers arrested 35 illegal migrants, including 25 males, 10 females, and eight children and youths, in a forested area of Tambon Hindad after receiving a tip-off. The group, reportedly seeking employment in inner provinces, was handed over to the Thong Pha Phum police station for legal action.
Approximately an hour earlier, police manning a checkpoint in Tambon Chalae chased a pickup truck that refused to stop for a search. They intercepted the vehicle at a petrol station, arresting six Myanmar men and two Thai smugglers – the driver, Somchai Mingkhwan, 40, and his accomplice, Kanchanit Chansomboon, 36.
On Tuesday night, authorities apprehended another smuggler, identified only as Win, a resident of Sangkhla Buri, along with 19 illegal job seekers near a resort in Tambon Tha Khanum. Win was driving a Toyota Fortuner when officers managed to intercept the vehicle around 10:30 pm.
