Migrant Workers’ Exodus Begins

SA KAEO, April 9 (TNA) -- The exodus of Cambodian and Myanmar workers has begun as they are heading for family reunion during their Songkran holiday. Huge crowds of Cambodian workers queued up at the Ban Khlong Luek border checkpoint in Aranyaprathet district of Sa Kaeo province to cross the border to Poipet city of Cambodia. Pol Col Benjapol Rodsawat, immigration chief of Sa Kaeo, said the immigration chief of Poipet asked Thai immigration officers to facilitate the return of Cambodian workers because earlier many Cambodian workers had lost baggage after they had Cambodian porters carry their bags across the border in advance while they had had to wait in long queues at the Thai border checkpoint. In response, more Thai immigration officers, including detectives, were deployed to check outbound Cambodian workers. The service also happened in front of the border checkpoint office in order to speed up the departure of the migrant workers. Pol Col Benjapol said that since April 5 nearly 20,000 Cambodian workers had left the country through the Ban Khlong Luek checkpoint. He expected the traffic to peak on April 12 when the Songkran long holiday officially starts. Meanwhile, many Myanmar workers were crossing the border back to their homeland through the Mae Sai border checkpoint in Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai province. Many migrant workers there said that they felt grateful towards the Thai government’s exemption of cross-border fees on April 5-30 as they had to return home to celebrate the Songkran festival and later revisit Thailand for work. Despite the heavy traffic, soldiers, immigration police and customs officials were carefully checking the workers’ baggage to prevent drug smuggling. (TNA)