About 60 Cambodians crossed illegally into Prachin Buri province on Wednesday to cut and smuggle rosewood from a World Heritage forest, authorities said, and about half of them were arrested.
Police, soldiers and administrators found the illegal workers waiting for transport at a reservoir construction site in Ban Kao village of tambon Kaeng Din Sor in Na Di district. As the authorities closed in, the migrants fled in several directions and only 28 were caught.
Interrogators found that a Cambodian employer sent them into Thailand to cut and transport rosewood from Thaplan National Park, which is a World Heritage site.
Just before the officials closed in on the group, a Thai man, Somyos Munkhonburi, was arrested and confessed to being hired for 3,000 baht to take the Cambodians to the national park. Instead, he took the authorities to the meeting point at the reservoir construction site.
Pol Maj Gen Weerachai Wisutthi-uthaikul, commander of Prachin Buri police, quoted some arrested Cambodians as saying that their group of 60 sneaked into Prachin Buri on neatly covered pickup trucks.
Authorities question illegal Cambodian migrants allegedly sent to carry out illegal rosewood logging in Prachin Buri province on Wednesday. (Photo by Manit Sanubboon)