KANCHANABURI: Soldiers of the Lat Ya Task Force arrested 16 Myanmar migrants on Saturday night found hiding in a rubber plantation in Sangkhla Buri district of this western border province.
The migrants -- 13 men and three women -- were rounded up from the rubber plantation behind Wat Somdet temple in Nam Lai village in tambon Nong Lu by soldiers acting on a tip-off from local informants.
The migrants had their temperatures checked. None were found with a fever or a temperature of over 37.5 degree Celcius. They were then handed over to Sangkhla Buri police for legal proceedings, pending deportation.
In an interrogation session, the migrants said they were led from different townships by two Myanmar guides -- members of a human smuggling gang -- to the Thai border on June 4. They crossed the border through a natural pass on Saturday at about 9pm and then hid in the rubber plantation near Nam Lai village. The two smugglers went back, leaving them to wait for other smugglers inside the ocuntry to arrive.
The arrested migrants said they had each paid the gang 15,000-26,000 baht for jobs in Bangkok, Nakhon Pathom, Nonthaburi, Samut Sakhon and Ayutthaya.