TWO ARRESTED IN CONNECTION WITH 7 SMUGGLED ROHINGYA

>> Nakhon Si Thammarat police yesterday arrested two individuals on suspicion of being involved in the smuggling into Thailand of seven Rohingya who were earlier detained in Thung Song district.

Pol Col Kritsana Pattanacharoen, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police, said the arrests were made after the Thung Song Provincial Court on Friday approved the warrants.

Pol Col Kritsana did not divulge the identities of the two suspects or say exactly where they were arrested.

He said they had been charged with illegally bringing foreign people into the country, giving them shelter and participating in organised transnational crime.

The pair are now being detained for questioning at Thung Song police station to find out whether there were others involved in the smuggling of these Rohingya into Thailand, he said.

The seven illegal entrants were apprehended on a Bangkok to Sungai Kolok train at Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Thung Song Train Station on Thursday. They were then detained for questioning at Thung Song police station, police said.

The five males and two females claimed to be from Bangladesh and said they were passing through Thailand in a bid to reach Malaysia where they would stay with relatives.

Police are checking their travel route, which they believe may have involved crossing a natural borderline between Myanmar and the western province of Kanchanaburi before boarding a train in Nakhon Pathom to continue their journey.

They have been charged with illegal entry to Thailand, police said.

However, Pol Col Kritsana said investigations found they were not victims of human trafficking.

He said national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda is paying close attention to those who enter the country illegally, and has made tackling human trafficking and the operations of transnational gangs a priority.

If any police officers are found to have been involved, they will face disciplinary procedures, said Pol Col Kritsana.