AFP - More than 140,000 Cambodians have fled Thailand to return home in the past week, an official said Monday, amid fears of a crackdown on migrant workers after last month's military takeover.
The mass exodus of workers - who play a key role in Thai industries such as seafood and agriculture but often lack official permits - comes amid an army warning of arrest and deportation for illegal foreign workers.
"By the middle of last night the number of Cambodian migrants from Thailand reached 142,000," Kor Sam Saroeut, governor of Cambodia's northwestern province of Banteay Meanchey, said.
More than 2,000 workers arrived at the Poipet border crossing on Monday morning alone and were waiting for government-organised transport to return home, he said.
The highway out of the border town was packed with military trucks ferrying men, women and children to their home provinces.
Seng Phoan, a 28-year-old construction worker who spent around two months in Thailand, was returning to the northwestern province of Battambang as part of the Cambodian army convoy.
"I decided to return because I feared arrest by the Thai army," she said during a pit stop.
"I was worried about my safety. If I can find work here I will not go back to Thailand," Ms Seng added.
Thai army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said in a statement Monday that the NCPO (junta body) has no policy of cracking down on Cambodian workers.
The junta has dismissed "rumours" it was forcing Cambodian labourers out of the country after issuing a warning last week that it viewed illegal migrants as a "threat" who faced arrest and deportation.
Thailand is usually home to more than two million migrant workers, according to activists, with many manual labourers coming from neighbouring Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar.
On May 22 the Thai army seized control of the government in a coup following years of political divisions between a military-backed royalist establishment and the family of fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Migrants flood the border
Soum Chankea, a coordinator for Cambodian rights group ADHOC who has met many workers at the border, said the number of migrants returning home was growing each day.
"They keep coming, more and more. Thousands more have arrived in Poipet this morning," he said.
Six Cambodian workers and a Thai driver transporting them to the border province of Sa Kaeo died in an accident early Sunday morning, said Thai police official Sommart Meungmuti.
The accident, which left another 12 people injured, is suspected to have been caused by a tyre explosion, he added.
Thailand is usually home to more than two million migrant workers, according to activists.
In the past the authorities turned a blind eye to the presence of illegal labourers because they were needed when the economy was booming.
But now Thailand is on the verge of recession after the economy contracted 2.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of 2014.
The army has floated the idea of creating special economic zones in border areas to better manage the movement of migrant workers, although so far details of the plan remain vague.
The coup followed years of political divisions between a military-backed royalist establishment and the family of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra -- a close ally of Cambodian premier Hun Sen, who once called him an "eternal friend".
AFP
No comments:
Post a Comment