Five Chinese men aged 34-61 were arrested in Bangkok's Huay Khwang district, dubbed “Little China”, while working illegally at a building renovation site.
Li Guahao, 36, Li Kaiwen, 61, Li Degao, 58, Feng Guayan, 41, and Tang Xianiao, 34 were arrested at a building renovation site on Ratchadaphisek Road in Hua Khwang at about 5.30pm on Saturday.
Police said the five Chinese men had tourist visas but were working illegally at the construction site with a daily wage of about 2,200 baht. Some of them drove a backhoe to tear down walls of an old building there.
Bangkok’s Huay Khwang district is dubbed “Little China” because there are many Chinese-funded businesses there.
Earlier on Saturday, soldiers stopped a motor boat with nine illegal Myanmar migrants aboard in the reservoir of the Vajiralongkorn dam in Thong Pha Phum district of Kanchanaburi.
Police arrested the migrants together with two Thai men, both natives of Kanchanaburi’s Sangkhlaburi district. They told police that they charged each illegal migrant 700 baht for a trip from a pier in Sangkhlaburi to the Tha Phae pier in Thong Pha Phum district.
Some of the illegal migrants said they wanted to work in other Thai provinces farther from the border, and had each paid 10,000-13,000 baht to human traffickers. Other Myanmar migrants said they paid 139,000 baht each for their trip to find jobs in Malaysia.
Illegal Myanmar migrants were arrested on a boat in the reservoir of the Vajiralongkorn dam in Kanchanaburi on Saturday. (Photo: Piyarach Chongcharoen)
