Thais return Cambodian loggers

[geovalin]

Four Cambodians have been repatriated after serving more than two years in a Thai prison for illegally logging luxury wood. Hou Dararith, chief of the Choam Sa-ngam border checkpoint in Oddar Meanchey province’s Anlong Veng district, said the four men were sent back on Friday.

 

“We received the four Cambodians that the Thai authorities handed over, initially to immigration officers, through our checkpoint,” he said, adding that they were allowed to return to their homes the same day. Mr Dararith declined to reveal the identities of the men, only saying three were from Preah Vihear province and one was from Kampot province.

 

He said the four were arrested by Thai authorities in December 2015 after illegally crossing into Thailand’s Sisaket province in search of luxury timber. “At the Choam Sa-ngam border checkpoint alone, 216 Cambodians who had been imprisoned in Thailand for crossing the border illegally to fell wood were deported to Cambodia last year,” Mr Dararith said.

 

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