Ten Thais who claimed they were being forced to work without pay in Phnom Penh fled across a border rooftop into Thailand on Wednesday morning.

The Thai army's Burapa Task Force reported their illegal return on its Facebook page.

It said rangers spotted the 10 Thais on a rooftop near the Ban Khlong Luek border checkpoint in Aranyaprathet district early Wednesday morning.

According to the Thai returnees, they had accepted offers of construction jobs in Phnom Penh at a daily wage of 300 baht.

After working there for a month, they had still not been paid. Therefore, they decided to leave and return to Thailand.

They said their employer took them to Poipet, where a trafficker demanded 3,000 baht to take them back across the border. They did not have the money but were desperate to return home, so they found their own way back across the rooftops.

All 10 were taken to Khlong Luek police station for legal processing and would receive help, police said.

The returnees did not explain why they accepted jobs in Cambodia that paid less than the same, available work in Thailand. Thai media reports suggested they were fleeing a scam-call centre.