Police to probe case of 39 Thais lured to fish in I'nesia
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Deputy national police chief General Ake Angsananont is looking into the case in which 39 Thais were illegally lured to work on fishing boats in Indonesia.
Ake yesterday presided over a meeting with related police agencies after 69 Thais were sent to the Royal Thai Embassy in Jakarta on July 29, and 39 of them were deemed to be human trafficking victims.
He said the 39 workers claimed they were told they would be working on fishing trawlers in Thai waters but were taken to Indonesia.
Arrest warrants were to be issued yesterday.
Thai authorities would help another batch of 13 Thais stranded in Indonesia to return home, Ake said.
Pavena Foundation for Children and Women chairwoman Pavena Hongsakul, who attended the meeting, said the 39 Thais – whose boss forged their seaman books – were arrested by Indonesian officials for intruding into Indonesian waters and detained in Pontianak City, west Kalimantan, for nearly six months.
She said the workers would sue the Labour Ministry for compensation, as they were not paid while working on the boats.
