Police have issued warrants for the owners of five pickup trucks used to transport 98 illegal Rohingya migrants, three of whom later died.
The five are wanted for questioning about three drivers who fled the scene while the migrants were being transported from Phangnga to Songkhla, said Pol Col Jian Chunoo, a senior police investigator at Hua Sai police station in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Rohingya migrants pray at a temporary shelter in Hua Sai district of Nakhon Si Thammarat. (Photo by Nucharee Rakrun)
Authorities rounded up the Rohingya at a road checkpoint in Hua Sai district last Sunday after stopping a convoy of five pickup trucks.
The drivers of three vehicles fled and the other two were arrested. They were identified as Sawat Phadungchart, 29, of Suksamran district in Ranong, and Suthipong Chuaypat, 49, of Chaiya district in Surat Thani.
The two drivers reportedly told police that they had picked the Rohingya up from a coastal area of Phangnga and were taking them to Songkhla.
One woman was crushed to death while being transported in one of the crammed pickup trucks and two others died later at a hospital in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The 95 illegal migrants, now being housed at a temporary shelter in Hua Sai, will be delivered into the care of the Social Development and Human Security Ministry next week, said Pol Col Jian.
Thousands of Rohingya have fled their homes in Rakhine state in Myanmar, where they have faced severe persecution. Most of them travel to Malaysia via Thailand but many of them fall into the hands of human traffickers.