Suspect tied to smuggling 157 Rohingya surrenders

Bangkok Post

January 25, 2013

One of the three suspects wanted in connection with the smuggling of more than 800 Rohingya illegal migrants in Songkhla province this month has surrendered to police.

Saroj Kaewmaneechote, 39, from Songkhla, was charged yesterday with helping 157 Rohingya migrants enter Thailand illegally, providing them with shelter, and detaining them against their will, Pol Lt Gen Pisit Pisutthisak, chief of Provincial Police Region 9, said.

The Rohingya were found during police raids on houses in tambon Padang Besa in Sadao district which belong to Mr Saroj.

The suspect allegedly confessed to having been approached by a Myanmar national named Jamanadin who paid him 5,000 baht each time he allowed the houses to be used to accommodate illegal migrants.

Police were still tracking Jamanadin and another suspect, Prasit Lemle, a former mayor of Padang Besar municipality in Sadao district.

In Narathiwat province, police yesterday discovered two spots suspected of being used to shelter illegal Rohingya migrants while they were waiting to sneak into neighbouring Malaysia, a police source said.

Officers received a tip-off from locals who said they had seen about 800 Rohingya staying at the two locations, which were in dense forest areas, the source said.

When officers searched the suspected hideouts, they found them deserted. But evidence found at the scenes led officers to believe both sites had recently housed illegal migrants, the source said.

In Phangnga province, immigration police yesterday transferred 270 Rohingya migrants to Prachuap Khiri Khan and Kanchanaburi to ease overcrowding in detention facilities.

Another 179 migrants had been transferred from the province the previous day.

About 450 migrants had been squeezed into the facilities, even though the immigration police office can hold only up to 250 detainees, Pol Maj Neti Khanboon, chief of Phangna immigration police, said.

Local Islamic organisations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) yesterday began talks on how they could help the hundreds of Rohingya migrants who remain here awaiting a decision on their fate.

The groups agreed to work on transferring detained Rohingya children to where their parents were being held.

Some of the more than 100 Rohingya migrants being detained at the immigration checkpoint in Sadao district of Songkhla would be transferred to Bang Klam police station in the same province to help ease overcrowding, officials said.