SONGKHLA: Sixteen illegal job seekers from Myanmar were caught in a van heading to the Malaysian border, on a road in Sadao district, early on Thursday morning.
A team of police, immigration officers and soldiers signalled a van with Bangkok licence plates to stop for a check in tambon Samnak Kham around 12.30am.
There were 15 male and one woman passengers in the van. All were Myanmar nationals who illegally entered the country, a member of the arresting team said.
The driver, identified only as Dul, said he was hired to pick them up at Ban Phru Khangkhao village in Hat Yai, at 2,500 baht each, and take them to the border at Ban Rai Tok village in Sadao district. There, they were to cross over the fence into Malaysia.
Some of the passengers could speak Thai and said they had entered the country through Kanchanaburi’s Sangkhla Bruri district. They had paid 10 million kyat each, about 30,000 baht, to job brokers to enter Thailand and then go to Malaysia for work there.
Once they were in Malaysia they were to pay another 3,500 ringgit, about 32,000 baht, each to job brokers there for work at furniture factories, on plantations and in the fishing sector.
All detainees were taken for Covod-19 testing before being handed over to Sangkhla Buri police for legal action.