38 desperate Khmers caught illegally crossing over to Thailand

THAI soldiers apprehended 38 hungry Cambodian migrant workers after they had illegally crossed the border to Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province, to look for jobs today (Aug. 30), Nawena newspaper said.

Col. Chainarong Kasi, commander of Burapha Task Force, sent a team of soldiers to arrest the 20 Cambodian men, 17 women and one girl at a sugarcane plantation. None of them had a passport or a work permit.

Upon being questioned they all said that they came to Thailand because they were hungry and did not have any income with their government not having supported them.

The Thai soldiers who arrested them said this incident underscores the economic crisis besetting the Cambodian people and is an issue the Cambodian government must prioritise.

Starving Cambodians are illegally crossing over to Thailand everyday with those rounded up today being sent to Klong Nam Sai police station for further legal action.

Two days ago some Thai troops found a large quantity of consumer goods packed in cardboard boxes and wrapped in plastic bags in a thicket along a Thai-Cambodian border canal at Aranyaprathet, Sa Kaeo, with no one claiming ownership.

It is suspected that the almost 100 bags of consumer goods, mostly daily necessities such as evaporated milk, coconut milk, dried chilies, soy sauce, other sauces, seasoning powder, noodles and meatballs, were being smuggled cross to Cambodia with this reflecting severe hunger and food shortage there that has led to Cambodians having to rely on smuggled products.

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Illegal Khmer migrant workers being arrested and a big pile of consumer goods seized at the border. Photos – Naewna