Border security stepped up to prevent smuggling of foreign labourers
The Ranong provincial administration has joined forces with six other agencies to strengthen the guarding of the province's border in an attempt to prevent the smuggling of foreign workers and Rohingyas into the kingdom, the governor said Monday.
Ranong Governor Pirasak Hinmuangkao, who is also the director of the Ranong office of the Internal Security Operations Command, said security needs to be beefed up along 300-km border to Satun.
Pirasak said the provincial administration is cooperating with the six other agencies to enforce various measures to prevent foreign workers and Rohingyas from sneaking across the border. The six other agencies are the Ranong Immigration Office, marine police, the Ranong Provincial Police head office, the ISOC, the Third Navy Area, and the Ranong Defence Office.
The governor said Myanmar workers are continuously trying to sneak through the border into the kingdom so all agencies needed to coordinate their operations to intercept the workers and Rohingya people.
Col Manus Kongpaen, the director of the ISOC Area 4’s Division 1, said the season for Rohingya people to begin boat trips to Thailand would begin soon so the authorities must also step up efforts to intercept them.
Manus said that as soon as the monsoon winds on the Andaman Sea die down, the Rohingya people would begin their boat trips, with the first boats reaching Thailand early November.
Manus said there would be three lines of defence against the smuggling in of Rohingya people. The Navy would be in charge of the outer line on the Interior Ministry, marine police and the Army would be in charge of the second line while local residents would be asked to watch the coastal areas and alert the authorities if they spotted Rohingya arrivals.
