Thai soldiers arrested 135 Cambodians at the border areas

Top and Bottom: Pictures of Cambodian workers being checked and deported to back to Cambodia.

Reported by Khmerization

135 Cambodians had been arrested by 30 Thai soldiers on the Banteay Meanchey-Sakeo border areas, reports Deum Ampil newspaper.

Deum Ampil quoted Thai Asean News Network as saying that the 56 men, 50 women, 12 boys and 12 girls had been arrested on 12th May in an area on the Banteay Meanchey-Sakeo borders.

The arrests took place when the Thai villagers reported to the Thai authority that those Cambodians had illegally entered Thailand and had damaged their rice and potato crops.

The arrested Cambodians said that because of poverty, they had entered Thailand to work in the Thai rice-fields and potato farms to earn a living, says Deum Ampil.

Deum Ampil reported that, after the arrests, the Thai authority contacted the Cambodian authority to take back those illegal workers through mutual agreements between the two countries.

Eight Cambodian workers went missing in Thailand

Radio Free Asia
By Moeung Tum
5th November
Translated from Khmer by Khmerization

The majority of Khmer workers in Thailand have said that they are concerned about their safety, after eight Khmer workers went missing.

The eight Khmers, who originally came from Battambang province, went missing after they were arrested by Thai police on 17th of October.

Mr. Riem Kosal, one of the many workers who are currently still working in Thailand, claimed that those eight workers were arrested because they refused to work for ATM Construction company in Nonthaburi province and walked off the job to return back to Cambodia.

Mr. Riem Kosal said that a Cambodian recruiter has warned those workers that they have to work for that Thai company. He said: “They wanted to go back home and they telephoned to Brother Ly (the recruiter) and Brother Ly said that if they want to go home they are free to go. But after that he warned those eight workers by saying that ‘do you want to go to jail’?”

The same source said that those eight workers were: Chan, Trop, Sambath, Lin, Ngorl, Tan, Khim and one other unknown person. These people came from Maung Russey district of Battambang province.

Radio Free Asia cannot contact the Thai police from Suan Phlu Detention Centre and ATM Construction company for the information regarding the whereabouts of those eight workers at the time of this story going to air on Wednesday.

But Ly, the accused recruiter, has denied that he was the one who recruited those people to work in Thailand, but he said that those eight people had already returned home to their village. He said: “I have asked them and they said that they have already returned home. This morning some of them have already gotten back home. They entered Thailand legally, but the majority of them have run away from the companies whom they are supposed to work for and usually their employers withheld their passports because the majority of the people who worked for that companies have run away. Like these eight workers, they only arrived for 4-5 days and they run away.”

As of today, there is no independent information that can confirm the safety or the whereabouts of those eight workers.//