RFA
There has been an exodus of Cambodian workers from neighboring Thailand amid a crackdown on illegal labor by the military junta in Bangkok, with the number returning to their homeland hitting more than 160,000 as of Monday, according to officials.
Amid the rush home, one local official said that eight people have been killed in two separate road accidents.
Though Thai authorities have described the movement across the border as “voluntary,” the mass return of Cambodian workers has been driven largely by Thailand’s military, which now governs Thailand after taking power in a May 22 coup, a Cambodian official said.
“The Thai military has instructed private companies not to accept illegal immigrants,” Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Kuy Koung told RFA’s Khmer service. “[Cambodian] immigrants who entered Thailand illegally must now return.”
Rumors of Thai military brutality against Cambodian immigrants are also causing workers to flee, he said.
Koy Kuong was quoted saying by the Associated Press that more than 160,000 Cambodians have returned home through several border checkpoints since June 1. There are estimated to be well upward of 200,000 Cambodians working in Thailand, most illegally.
Fears for safety
One worker returning to Cambodia said he decided to leave Thailand out of fear for his personal safety.
“I returned from Thailand because I heard that if I am arrested by Thai police, they will put me in jail for three months, or that I might be killed,” the worker, Houy Dy, told RFA.
“Because I am afraid of dying, I decided to go back,” he said.
A Cambodian woman named Ngoun Pov said that she decided to return after hearing a Thai television broadcast urging illegal immigrants to leave the country, adding, “I originally left Cambodia because I had no job or land to cultivate.”
Her two daughters meanwhile remain “trapped” in Thailand, she said.
On Monday alone, around 12,000 workers arrived in the border town of Poipet in northwestern Banteay Meanchey province, Cambodian officials said.
Banteay Meanchey Governor Kor Sum Saroeut told RFA that eight people had been killed in two separate accidents during the trip home, saying the victims were aged 16 to 31 years.
“The workers were en route to the border when their broker-hired truck overturned in Thailand’s Chachoengsao province,” The Phnom Penh Post said, citing information received from the Cambodia-Thai Border Relations Office.
'Credible accounts'
Last week, the Cambodian Human Rights Action Committee (CHRAC), an umbrella group of 21 nongovernmental organizations, claimed that investigators from the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association (ADHOC)—a CHRAC member—have received “credible witness accounts” that up to nine Cambodian migrants have been killed during the deportations, and that “beatings have occurred at the hands of the Thai armed forces.”
Thai Foreign Ministry spokesman Sek Wannamethee described the departures by Cambodians as voluntary, calling allegations of forced removals from Thailand “unfounded,” according to an AP report Monday.
Crossings into Cambodia have only been “facilitated by the Thai side in terms of transportation to the border checkpoints,” Sek said.
Thai army spokesman Winthai Suvaree said in a statement that Thailand's ruling junta, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), has no policy of cracking down on Cambodian workers.
Recently repatriated Cambodian workers said that in several cases, Thai soldiers had coerced payment for safe passage to the border, threatening to jail or kill immigrants who refused to pay, The Post said on Monday.
Laborers from Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar have played a key role in Thai industries such as seafood, agriculture, and construction, but often lack proper work permits.
Though Thailand’s army, which took control after years of political divisions between a military-backed royalist establishment and the family of fugitive former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has proposed special economic zones in Thailand’s border areas to better manage migrant workers, it has provided few details on how to implement the plan.
Reported by Suon Sophalmony and Samean Yun for RFA’s Khmer Service. Translated by Samean Yun. Written in English by Richard Finney.
Thai army is the most evil on earth. I still don't understand why American still support siam. Remember, if they did not have Khmer rouge and Son San's force back in 80's , thai would be in a hand of youn already. Please treat Khmer in human. I thought we have the same blood and same religion.
Jun 17, 2014 03:34 PM
try not to worry about any thing although you are illegal employee and as long as you and your employer are good team work.
Jun 17, 2014 11:08 AM
The first casualty of any conflict is the TRUTH and its body of evidence is buried.
He or She who conceals the TRUTH only seeks self-interest and NOT the interest of the people.
He or She is the ENEMY of the PEOPLE, the destroyer of TRUST, TRUTH, PEACE and PROGRESS in a society.
HUN SEN and his cronies, and the THAI JUNTA and its cronies, like to use the GANGSTER LOGIC to repress the people.
"EVIL flourishes when GOOD people do NOTHING." -- Edmund Burke
People have eyes, but they don't see.
People have brains, but they don't think.
People have power, but they don't use.
They like to hear without seeing and thinking.
That's why there is NO PROGRESS and NO development.
Jun 16, 2014 11:10 PM
