31 injured after migrant smugglers chased
SOME 31 people - mostly illegal migrants from Myanmar - were injured when a military Humvee chased a pickup driven by a gang of people smugglers and both vehicles crashed into a roadside ditch in Kanchanaburi’s Muang district on Thursday night.
The 31 injured included 37-year-old pickup driver Tonrak Jamroonchotkobjit, five soldiers and 25 migrants.
Colonel Sutthipong Pheudmongkol of the Ninth Infantry Division, who inspected the scene, said the pickup – carrying migrants from Ban Bong Ti border area in Sai Yok district – had broken away a checkpoint manned by troops in Tambon Ban Kao, so the M51 Humvee gave chase.
But the pickup driver, heading towards Tambon Pak Phraek, lost control and crashed into a dried up ditch while the Humvee, in hot pursuit, couldn’t break in time. So, it also plunged on top of the truck, resulting to the many injuries.
Police said the driver Tonrak – now in a hospital’s intensive care unit – had been arrested for similar offences many times by Sai Yok police; most recently on May 5 last year.
In related news, Prasong La-on, district chief at Phop Phra in Tak, led a combined team of administrative officials, Army, police and related agencies to surround a Myanmar community in Tambon Chong Khaeb to search for law breakers after reports that many Myanmar people had sneaked into the district due to high demand for farm hands. They arrested four people accused of harbouring migrants without papers and rounded up 70 migrants seeking work. All were passed to Phop Phra Police for legal action.
Meanwhile, Immigration Police found a van carrying 23 undocumented workers from Cambodia in Samut Prakan’s Bang Bo district yesterday and arrested a 32-year-old Thai van driver, Wiroon Phermchaowalit.
Immigration Police Commander Pol Maj General Suwichpol Imchairat said the arrest stemmed from a previous investigation that some worker-smuggling gangs brought undocumented Cambodians into Bangkok and nearby provinces for payment of Bt2,500-Bt3,000 per head. Initial inquiries with the rounded-up workers found these people were not forced, as they wanted to find jobs in Bangkok, he said.
Suwichpol said the team subsequently arrested another four undocumented Cambodians, found walking towards the alley where the van was intercepted.
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