Latest on People Smuggling
A TOTAL of 44 Burmese laborers were arrested when authorities from Phuket Province checked permits at a construction camp behind the Supercheap market yesterday.
The area behind the large supermarket is home to hundreds of Burmese.
But a check of paperwork yesterday revealed that most were working legally on Phuket.
Immigration Superintendent Police Colonel Chanatpol Yongbunjerd told Phuketwan that Burmese continued to be arrested in small numbers around the island on an almost daily basis.
They are usually kept in the cells on Phuket until the space is full, then a truck carries them north.
The 44 illegal laborers arrested yesterday were taken to Immigration HQ at Saphan Hin, where they spent the night, and this morning put on the road to Ranong Immigration.
They will be kept in Ranong until after they appear in court.
The process usually involves a small fine and then deportation across the river at Ranong to the twin town of Victoria Point in Burma.
A group of 78 Rohingya boat people is currently being held in Ranong pending a decision by the Thai Government on their future.
In April last year, 54 illegal Burmese laborers suffocated in a container truck as they attempted to make the journey south to start a new life on Phuket.
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