SONGKHLA: A suspected trafficker was arrested on Saturday along with 27 illegal migrants from Myanmar, who had gone five days without food while hiding near a Hat Yai golf course as they awaited transport to Malaysia.
A team of anti-human trafficking and border patrol police, immigration officers and soldiers found the men behind the Southern Hills golf course in tambon Ban Phru following the arrest of a suspected member of a human trafficking gang earlier in the day.
The suspected trafficker, whose name has not been released, was asked to wave his hands to signal to the workers hiding in forested hills nearby to emerge from their hideout.
The migrant workers, all men, gradually walked out without realising that law-enforcement officers were waiting for them, said police.
Police said the migrants from Yangon were waiting to go to Malaysia. A trafficking gang had brought them into Thailand via the border at Ranong, where they boarded a passenger bus, and some took pickup trucks to a meeting site behind the golf course. They were told to hide there pending transport to the Thai-Malaysian border, which was not far away.
However, the men languished in the forest for about one week with no word on when they would be picked up. For the final five days they had no food, only water.
The migrants were taken to the Thung Lung police station in Hat Yai on charges of illegal entry. They will be deported back to Myanmar. The suspected trafficker is in custody pending further investigations into the trafficking ring.
