Thailand investigating Cambodia Muslim human trafficking scheme

KUALA LUMPUR: Thailand police said on Monday they are investigating what they believe to be a human trafficking operation that sees Cambodian Muslims enter the country as tourists, but then work as rubber workers for as long as 6 months.

When they want to go home, they let themselves be arrested for illegal entry by abandoning their travel documents.

“Then they are repatriated and later re-enter Thailand using the same names in new passports,” police officials were reported saying by local Thai newspapers.

Police Lt-Colonel Benjaphol Rodsawas, an immigration officer in Narathiwat, said this action “could also be used to help insurgents in the deep south flee Thailand or relocate.

“Besides being illegal, it serves as a measure for traffickers to relocate these people without them being prosecuted or imprisoned,” he said.

However, human rights workers in Thailand told Bikyamasr.com that although the government and police are right to investigate the illegal entry and working of the Cambodians, “there is no evidence that they are part of any insurgent action to assist Muslims in Thailand’s south.”

The discovery followed recent arrests of 131 Cambodian Muslims in Narathiwat, who entered Thailand through Sa Kaew on a 14-day tourist visit. They then reportedly traveled to Narathiwat and worked as rubber tappers.

Sourced: bikyamasr