NARATHIWAT, March 4 — Thai authorities today detained 45 Myanmar nationals trespassing into the country via a rat route on the Thailand-Malaysia border.
Sungai Kolok chief district officer Rungruang Thimabut said all Myanmar nationals, including four women, aged between 20 and 40, were detained at about 6 am (local time) yesterday.
"All of them were arrested while crossing the river in the Sungai Kolok district in Narathiwat," he said at a press conference here today.
Ruangruang said initial investigations found that all of those arrested worked in restaurants and factories in Malaysia.
“We found that they were brought in by a Malaysian skipper (tekong darat) before being abandoned at the Malaysia-Thailand border and later, a Thai skipper would bring them into Myanmar,” he said.
All of them have completed the health screening and will undergo mandatory quarantine before being sent back to Myanmar.
— Bernama
