KANCHANABURI: Operators of shacks selling miscellaneous items along Highway 323 in Sangkhla Buri district have been ordered to demolish them following a report that they have provided shelter for illegal border crossers.
Pol Col Pipat Roongsampan, acting Sangkhla Buri police chief, on Sunday led a team of police, soldiers from the Lat Ya Task Force and local leaders to meet the operators of 12 shops selling such items as farm products and beverages by Highway 323.
The shacks, built with bamboo and thatch, were erected along the road for about four kilometres between Song Kalia and Nam Koek villages in tambon Nong Lu on land belonging to the Highway Department.
Pol Col Pipat said the move followed an intelligence report from a security unit saying that migrant workers had used these shacks as shelter after crossing the border from Myanmar at night, waiting for transport to take them further inside the country.
According to the report, some of the shack operators had been involved in the smuggling of illegal migrants by going on the lookout for authorities.
The operators of the 12 shops agreed to cooperate. They said they would finish the demolition by Tuesday.
In October, the authorities have so far arrested 120 illegal border crossers in Sangkhla Buri district and six Thai helpers and seized from them two cars, one pick-up, four motorcycles and one motor-tricycle, Pol Col Pipat said.