SONGKHLA - Nine Afghan illegal migrants on their way to Malaysia and three Thai smugglers were arrested separaely in two southern provinces on Saturday.
Immigration officers, police from Provincial Police Region 9 and tourist police intercepted a pickup truck with Narathiwat licence plates on a road near a garbage dump in tambon Khuan Luang of Hat Yai district in Songkhla on Saturday morning.
Two Thais — driver Waenasueree Arwae, 34, and Nuraseela Jorloh, 31 — were arrested. Four illegal migrants from Afghanistan who were in the bed of the pickup truck were also apprehended. All were taken to the Hat Yai police station.
Another police team arrested a Thai man, identified later as Nimae Maerorgaki, 41, and five Afghan migrants when his car was intercepted at the Morkaeng road checkpoint in Nong Chik district of Pattani on the same day. All were taken to the Nong Chik police station.
The three Thais were charged with colluding in sheltering illegal migrants and helping them evade arrest.
The two drivers told police that they had been hired by a Malaysian national to transport the migrants from Songkhla to the border district of Sungai Kolok in Narathiwat for 3,000 baht per head.
According to the investigation, the nine migrants had entered Thailand from Cambodia via a natural border crossing in Sa Kaeo. They said they had paid brokers 120,000 baht each to arrange jobs and transport to Malaysia. All were held in police custody for legal action.
Another group of Afghan illegal migrants are arrested in Pattani. (Photo: Assawin Pakkawan)