10 illegal Cambodian workers and their Thai driver arrested in Pattaya

10 Cambodians and Thai Agent arrested in Sattahip

Saturday 2nd February 2008
Pattaya City News (Thailand)

Police from Sattahip were on routine patrol on Friday Night when they spotted a pick-up containing a number of passengers who appeared not to be of Thai Origin. It was decided to pull over the Grey Mazda pick-up which was being driven by Khun Oran aged 45. In the back of the pick-up were 10 Cambodian Nationals, including 2 children. None had passports and one of them who could speak Thai explained that they had paid the driver to bring them from Cambodia to illegally work here in Thailand. Khun Oran was charged with harboring illegal immigrants and the Cambodian Nationals who were on their way to the Samaer San Fishing Port will be deported at the earliest opportunity.

While Hun Sen boasts about economic progress, Cambodian workers are leaving in drove to find work in Thailand and in neighboring countries

Grief-stricken Cambodian workers deported back from Thailand

Saturday, December 29, 2007
Rasmei Kampuchea newspaper
Translated from Khmer by Socheata

Cambodian-Thai border police based in Poipet area, Banteay Meanchey province indicated that, recently, Cambodian workers who crossed the borders to work in Thailand were arrested and send back, they are filled with grief and hurt. These workers were arrested, had to endure hardship in the hands of the Thai cops and were prevented from working by the Thai police force, and they are now facing the deportation back to Cambodia.

Cambodian police indicated that Cambodian workers, who left their country, were deported by the Thai police who loaded them up into trucks and dumped them at the Poipet border gate, they are illegal workers who struggled hard to elude the Thai border guards during their border crossing, in order to find work in Thailand.

The Cambodian police quoted these Cambodian workers, saying: “Because they went to work there (in Thailand) without proper paperwork, they went because they were very poor in their villages in Cambodia, and they didn’t have work or jobs here.”

At the end of the fourth week of December 2007, two full truckloads of convicts were dumped at the Poipet international border gate. These turn out to be Cambodian workers who went to work in Thailand illegally.

In an interview with a foreign news media, Cambodian immigration police at the Poipet international border gate indicated that, almost daily, and at least 3-4 times a week, Cambodian workers were dumped there in group of 50-100 persons. For the 26 December 2007 deportation, the number of workers deported is not known yet. Furthermore, the total yearly number of illegal Cambodian workers who were deported back has not been tallied up yet.

Cambodian immigration police said that, each year, a large number of Cambodian workers leave to work in Thailand. Some of them have the legal paperwork as they are sent over by private companies and they have the authorization from both the Cambodian and Thai governments to go work in Thailand, but a number of others are going to work there without legal paperwork, and they are following friends or they pay middlemen to take them in to Thailand through border corridors.

The workers who were deported back from Thailand said that some of them came from Thmar Puok district, Banteay Meanchey province, some came from Kampong Speu province, as well as a number of other provinces, and the majority of them were dumped at the borderline several times already. Nevertheless, they kept on returning back to Thailand to find work in order to earn a living and have money to buy food and goods for a decent living, whereas in their villages in Cambodia, they do not have work, and they cannot find work, when they work in the rice fields, they face drought and they do not even own land to plant crops at all.

Thailand is a neighboring country with Cambodia, and it is a country where Cambodian workers go to work, legally and illegally. Besides the job market in Thailand, Cambodia also sent out Cambodian workers through private companies to work in other countries, such as Malaysia, Korea, etc… because Cambodia does not have sufficient jobs for all the workers in the country.

In the past, the government work hard to attract foreign investors to invest in Cambodia, especially in the garment industry, tourism, and construction. However, the ministry of industry reported that only 300,000 jobs were created.

A hard lesson for poor Cambodians: When you depend on foreigners for your livelihood, you are rounded up like cattles

Immigration Police arrest 119 illegal Cambodian Construction Workers

Wednesday 3rd October 2007
Pattaya City News (Thailand)

Police Colonel Itipon, the Superintendent of Pattaya’s Immigration Office arranged a rounding-up operation which took place in the early hours of Wednesday Morning. The intent was to round-up illegal foreign workers at a number of Construction Sites in Pattaya and Sattahip District. A total of 5 locations were targeted in the operation which led to the arrest of 119 Cambodian Workers who did not possess passports or work permits. They will now be deported back to Cambodia at the earliest opportunity.

Illegal Cambodian construction worker found dead at dillapidated campsite ... Will Cambodia claim this as an internal affair of Thailand again?

Wednesday 23rd May 2007
Illegal Cambodian Construction Worker found dead in Campsite.

Pattaya City News (Thailand)

On Thursday Afternoon, Police Major Tailert from Dongtan Police Sub-Station on Jomtien Beach was called to a constructor’s campsite in Soi Chayapreuk off Jomtien Beach Road to investigate the death of one of the workers. The dead man is Mr. Jon aged 31, a Cambodian National who was working at the site with his wife, who explained that the pair had entered Thailand illegally to work in the construction industry about 3 months ago. Her husband had gone for a sleep during their lunch break and failed to wake up. Police checked the room and body and found nothing suspicious. A post mortem examination is now underway to confirm the cause of death which is expected to be natural causes.