Kamphaeng Phet police rescue stranded illegal migrants, pick up 3 dead bodies
A group of 23 illegal Myanmar migrants, three of whom were dead and four seriously injured, were found stranded on the roadside in Kamphaeng Phet province on Saturday.
Initial interrogation revealed that the group had entered Thailand illegally via natural channels and had paid agents 7,000 to 23,000 baht per person to transport them in a pick-up truck from Tak’s border town of Mae Sot to job sites in different parts of Thailand.
“When the truck reached Kamphaeng Phet, it lost control while travelling downhill and overturned. Some of the passengers were thrown overboard,” said Si (last name withheld).
The 30-year-old illegal migrant added: “The agents then sent another truck to pick us up and it left us here on the roadside. Three of the passengers [two men and a woman] died before the police arrived.”
The group underwent Covid-19 tests before police transferred the injured and the dead bodies to hospital. Police have launched a manhunt for the so-called agents and are tracking the route taken to smuggle the migrants.
The Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) announced on Saturday that in the first five days of November, as many as 2,853 people have been caught trying to sneak across different borders in Thailand.
ISOC spokesman General Sitthichai Makkunchorn said of the people caught, 1,807 were Myanmar nationals, 996 Cambodians, 24 Indians, 11 Chinese, five Laotians and 10 Thai nationals.
“These people are a threat to the public health system as they skip the Covid-19 screening tests made mandatory by the Department of Disease Control,” he said. “Officers have also arrested 63 Myanmar nationals and 28 Thais for helping bring illegal migrants into the country.”
