Cambodian monks found in Samut Prakan camp without passports
Thai authorities on Wednesday checked the identities of foreign monks who have resided for nearly two months in a makeshift camp in Tambon Theparak in the Muang district of Samut Prakan province.
Following complaints by local residents of monks engaged in suspicious activities, the director of the Samut Prakan branch of the National Office of Buddhism, Penprapa Paengthai, led police and soldiers to search the camp. The camp comprised five makeshift shacks and a coop with six cockfighters, located in a wooded area near the Theparak Road’s 15 kilometre marker. They rounded up five monks and two novices who presented monk identification cards issued in Cambodia but none of them had passports.
A 27-year-old monk, identified as Phra Suwan Kung, told the officials via an interpreter that he and the others had travelled from the Cambodian town of Battambang into Thailand across the natural border.
He said they had set up the camp there for the past two months to perform monk activities and did not think that it would affect any local residents.
Monks in Thailand usually reside at temples and each would have a monk identification card to show which temple he was registered with.