SONGKHLA, July 8 (TNA) – Eight Myanmar migrants and two
Thai illegal agents have been arrested following a police hot pursuit in
southern Songkhla province of Thailand.
The two female labour agents allegedly picked up the six
male and two female Myanmar migrants in Phang-nga and tried to transport them
in a SUV to a town bordering Malaysia.
When police spotted them on a highway in Rattaphum district
of Songkhla they sped off. After the
high-speed chase, the agents surrendered to police claiming they were hired to
take the migrants to another trafficker in Singhanakhon district.
The Myanmar migrants, who crossed the border from Myanmar’s
Kawthaung township to Thailand’s Ranong province, each paid the trafficking
ring Bt20,000 to take them to Malaysia, police said.
High demand for labourers in agricultural and fishery
sectors in Malaysia has led to the rise in trafficking of illegal migrants via
Thailand, according to police. For
Muslim Rohingya, the cost could go up three folds to Bt50,000 to 60,000, police
said.(TNA)
