.
Sixteen Myanmar migrant workers, including three minors under 18
years old, who were allegedly ‘sold’ to a Malaysia fishing boat in
southern Thailand were rescued by Thai officials on July 13, according
to a Thai-based migrant rights groups.
.
“We were asked to rescue migrants on July 8, and we spent about four
days collecting information about the victims and their location. After
that we asked Thailand’s Department of Special Investigation to help
rescue the victims,” said U Kyaw Thaung, director of the Myanmar
Association in Thailand (MAT), on Monday.
He said that initially
13 Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand were sold by a broker to the
Malaysian fishing boat that had docked with fake documents at Naya Thiwa
Port, Pattani province, in Thailand.
U Kyaw Thaung said each
worker had paid 17,000 baht to the broker to find jobs in Indonesia, but
the broker sold them to the fishing boat instead.
“When we asked
the DSI to help save our workers, it asked for a recommendation letter
from the Myanmar Embassy. They rescued our migrants on July 13 when we
provided the recommendation letter,” Ko Shwe Tun Aye, chair of Migrant
Workers’ Network in Phuket, said Monday.
He said the workers were rescued with the help of the Thai army.
According
to MAT, they also rescued other Myanmar migrants, one aged 14 and two
aged 17, who had been sold by another broker to the fishing boat on the
day the rescue team reached them.
According to U Kyaw Thaung, the
16 Myanmar workers were to be sent to a fishing vessel in Indonesia.
Fifteen of the victims are from Rakhine State and one is from Bago
Region.
All the rescued victims are being held at a detention
center, and Thai officials are planning to arrest the brokers for human
trafficking.
Source - mmtimes
