TAK, March 14 (TNA) – Officials arrested 53 illegal Myanmar migrants who were hiding on a six-wheeled truck carrying vegetables at a checkpoint in Mae Sot district.
The arrest happened at the checkpoint on Mae Sot-Tak Road at about 11pm on March 13. Soldiers, police and administrative officials found all the 53 illegal migrants hiding in a compartment covered with bags of eggplants, coriander and cabbage. The compartment was about one meter wide and stretched along the tray of the truck.
The 53 Myanmar migrants comprised 22 men and 31 women. Everyone was suffocating inside the enclosed space and officials hurriedly brought them out to fresh air.
Truck driver Narat Charoensuk, 31, said he picked up all the migrants from a border area and was driving to Bang Pa-in district of Ayutthaya. He tried not to reveal other culprits in his human-trafficking gang.
Col Narongchai Charoenchai, commander of the 14th ad hoc infantry task force, said officials were strictly checking all cargo trucks around the clock to block illegal migrants. (TNA)
