KANCHANABURI: Two groups totalling 41 job seekers from Myanmar were arrested after illegally crossing the border into Muang and Sangkhla Buri districts on Wednesday morning.
A combined team of police, soldiers and local officials detained 17 men walking near a sugarcane plantation on the Ban Takhian Ngam-Huai Nam Khao roate in tambon Ban Klao of Muang district around 8.30am.
Pol Col Somkiart Chomchai, chief of Muang district police, said all had entered illegally from Myanmar via natural crossings. There were no guides.
The detainees said they had travelled from Bago township and had paid 25,000 baht each to job brokers who promised to take them to jobs in Bangkok. None had worked in Thailand before, they said.
They would be sent back via the Ban Phu Namron permanent border checkpoint in Muang district.
Earlier on Wedneday, 24 illegal border crossers from Myanmar were caught in Sangkhla Buri district.
A joint patrol of soldiers and police arrested the 18 men and six women at Song Kalia village Moo 8 in tambon Nong Loo.
They told the officers they had travelled from Mawlamyine and Rangoon to get work in Thailand. They had paid 23,000 baht each to job brokers and were promised work in Bangkok, Lop Buri and Nakhon Pathom.
All were taken to Sangkhla Buri police station for legal action.
Twenty-four illegal Myanmar job seekers are arrested early on Wednesday in Sangkhla Buri district, Kanchanaburi. (Photo supplied)