More illegal migrants from neighbouring Myanmar and Cambodia have been detained while crossing the border into Thailand after the prime minister ordered a probe into the human trafficking rings behind these illegal border crossings.
Twenty-three Myanmar migrants -- 11 men, five women and seven children -- were detained yesterday while travelling on foot at a border village in Fang district of Chiang Mai, said Col Wirachai Phongkaeo, head of the 4th special infantry unit of the Pha Maung Task Force.
A border patrol team found them when it was patrolling as part of a regular operation aimed at stemming the flow of smuggled drugs and illegal migrant workers, said Col Wirachai.
The migrants told the authorities they intended to find work in Chiang Mai.
In Sa Kaeo, 46 Cambodian migrants were yesterday detained in two separate incidents of illegal border crossings, said a source. In the first, 35 Cambodian nationals, 16 men and 19 women, were detained in Ban Thap Phrik in Aranyaprathet district by a combined force of police and military rangers, said Col Ronnarong Sengmi, head of a military ranger unit involved in the suppression of illegal border crossings.
The detained workers said they had paid brokers between 6,000 baht and 9,000 baht each to be smuggled across, said Col Ronnarong.
They aimed to work in a bread-making factory, a construction site, a barbecue shop and a company in Rayong, Bangkok, Chon Buri and Pathum Thani, respectively, he said.
The rates they had paid were considerably higher than those charged to previously detained illegal migrants, said an informed source.
Another 11 Cambodian migrants, six men and five women, were held in the other crackdown carried out in tambon Khlong Hat in Khlong Hat district of the same province, said the source.
Following this rise in the number of illegal migrants crossing into Thailand, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha ordered border security stepped up and anyone found engaged in human trafficking activities tracked, said government spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana.
The Labour Ministry is speeding up discussions to find a solution to labour shortages in some industries, he added.