21 Rohingya escape from Phang Nga centre in the South

[webfact]

21 Rohingya escape from Phang Nga centre in the South



PHANG NGA: -- Twenty Rohingya asylum seekers escaped from detention at the Phang Nga immigration office in Southern Thailand today, but one was captured shortly afterwards.

According to Phang Nga police, the illegal immigrants fled from the detention centre late in the night, using a saw to cut off the iron bars of the detention centre, and climbed over a channel underneath the roof.

They then walked under cover of bushes to the nearby Phang Nga -Thap Pud road to escape.

However as they were walking on the road, waiting for pickup truck to pick them, a Samaritan passing the road saw them and alerted the police.

A combined force of police and district officials rushed to the scene immediately, and managed to capture one of them, while the rest escaped into the bushes.

These Rohingya claimed they fled Myanmar due to alleged persecution.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/content/164302


-- Thai PBS 2016-05-23

[thaiduncankk]

So watching all those old prison movies years ago wasn't a waste of time.

[tuanku]

I highly doubt that a Samaritan did in fact pass, (and I think that the reporter does not know the context of the bible story as the Samaritan helped where as in the news story the passerby is more like a Judas figure) but the parallel though unintended is ironic.

The term "Cuthim" applied by Jews to the Samaritans had clear pejorative connotations, implying that they were interlopers brought in from Kutha in Mesopotamia and rejecting their claim of descent from the ancient Tribes of Israel. (Wikipedia)

The term "Bengali" applied to the Rohingya has clear perjorative connotations implying they are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and rejecting their claim to citizenship of Myanmar.