Some 46 abandoned migrant workers rescued in Chumphon

[Thaivisa News]

Chumphon: – The combined team of military, police and local officials have rescued 46 migrant workers from Myanmar who were abandoned to fend for themselves at the forest reserve near Mueang district.

The case came to light yesterday after the abandoned workers tried to beg for food from villagers of Ban NaiNguam, Tambon Ban Na. The villagers alerted, in turn, the authorities.

Relevant agencies provided relief supplies before the workers were transported to a holding centre located inside the Chumphon Territorial Defence Camp.

In their statement, the workers said they travelled from different parts of Myanmar. A group of Thai job brokers promised them work in Thailand and Malaysia.

Each paid 7,000 baht job placement fee. In the final leg of the journey in Myanmar, the workers boarded a boat to disembark at a transit camp on the Myanmar bank of Kraburi River in Ranong.

Under the escort of three armed Thai men, the workers, aged ranging from 12 to 44, comprising 41 men and six women, crossed the river into Ranong.

The Thai men led them trekking through the national reserve for three days before reaching the transit camp in Chumphon.

At the Chumphon camp, the Thai men deserted them. After two days of starvation, the workers started to look for food in the village.

The workers said one of the Thai men took a woman and her seven-month-old baby girl despite the protest of her husband.

On Friday, the authorities rescued a separate group of 28 migrant workers, including four rape victims, from Myanmar.

The workers said another batch of 150 migrants might still be unaccounted for after being abandoned in the jungle by job brokers.

They also said hundreds of migrants were waiting to cross the river into Ranong.

[ourmanflint]

Abandoned because the news has got out that their captors are wanted men, and even their bosses are now on the run as well. Looks like these all Thai slave traders were heading to the islands to deliver their hoard to their new lives, cleaning up after tourists.

[atsiii]

So... one group of 46, from which one woman + child are taken by an armed Thai man; another group of 28, four of whom had been raped; another group of 150 'unaccounted' for (how then do they know there was 150?); hundreds more at the river waiting to cross; and all this is separate and apart from the recent articles highlighting 33+ bodies found along with three camps and suspected hundreds missing.

Yea, I just can't understand what all the international uproar is about; tier 3 seems so unfair. Sanctions would be such an undeserved outrage!