Thai man arrested for Myanmar migrant smuggling

11 June 2019
Thai man arrested for Myanmar migrant smuggling
Migrant workers break apart blocks of pressed plastic bottles at the Thaiplastic Recycle Group plant in Samut Sakhon, outside Bangkok, Thailand. Photo: Diego Azubel/EPA

A Thai man was arrested on Monday for allegedly trying to smuggle 21 undocumented Myanmar migrants from Thailand’s south into Malaysia, Thailand’s The Nation reported.

Army troops and police jointly searched a resort in Tambon Patong of Songkhla’s Hat Yai district early Monday and found five Myanmar men and two women in two rooms.

Their account led to the arrest of Pongpipat Suwanraksa. After questioning Pongpipat, the authorities found 13 more Myanmar men and one woman in a forest, who looked tired and hungry. None of them had eaten in three days and some had fallen ill as a result.