More Than 110,000 Cambodian Migrants Flee Thailand: Official

[waerth]

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/More-than-110000-Cambodian-migrants-flee-Thailand--30236286.html

 

PHNOM PENH - More than 110,000 Cambodians have fled Thailand to return home in the past week, an official said Sunday, amid fears of a crackdown on migrant workers after last month's military takeover.

 

Labourers from Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar play a key role in Thai industries such as seafood, agriculture and construction, but they often lack official work permits.

 

On Wednesday Thailand’s military regime, which seized power in a coup on May 22, threatened to arrest and deport all illegal foreign workers.

 

"They’re returning en masse like a dam collapsing. They’ve never come en masse like this before in our history," Kor Sam Saroeut, governor of northwestern Banteay Meanchey province where the main Cambodian-Thai border crossing is located, told AFP by telephone.

 

More than 110,000 Cambodian migrants had returned from Thailand in the last week as of Sunday morning, many of them transported to the border by the Thai military, he said.

 

"They said they are scared of being arrested or shot if they run when Thai authorities check their houses," Saroeut added. "Most of them went to work in Thailand without a work permit."

 

Cambodian authorities have arranged nearly 300 cars and military trucks to transport workers from the Aranyaprathet-Poipet border checkpoint to their homes.

[Flashermac]

Go to the Immigration office at Lad Prao and you will see long lines of Burmese and Cambodians waiting to get their visas. Why don't the others do the same?

[waerth]

According to many news messages also legally employed Cambodians are leaving in droves. Seems Burmese are hiding in their rooms mostly.

 

The paperwork involves a lot of documents that need to be gotten from ones home country which as I understood from a Burmese girl is virtuallt impossible to get back home, unless they "pay" 40,000-50,000" to the Burmese officialdom. They are literally between 2 walls.

[waerth]

Interesting post on Thai Visa (but it could be bullshit all the same, I am pretty sure the shooting Cambodians part is bullshit). If a rumor like this was circulating about shooting Farangs I am pretty sure quite a few would leave just to be on the safe side!

 

I have just called (the 15th June, 12:03 CET ) a Cambodian friend living in Siem Reap to find out what is going on.

He told me that the rumours were that Cambodians should be out of Thailand before the 23rd of June or they risked to be killed by the military.

 

He knew personally many friends working in Thailand leagelly, and they were all coming back before the 20th just to be on the safe side, if the killings should start before the 23rd.

 

He was dead serious.

I told him that my Thai friends had not heard the rumours. His reply was, better to be safe than sorry.

There were also circulating some videos on the Internet showing Cambodians being attacked by Thais, but he had not seen them, so that is probably a false rumour too.