Thai authorities crack down illegal immigrants

RAYONG, February 7 (TNA) - Thai authorities in the eastern Rayong Province have arrested over 70 migrant workers from neighbouring countries in their latest crackdown on illegal foreign labours since early this month. Police Lieutenant Colonel Ekkorn Butsababodin, chief of Rayong's immigration police office, told a press conference today that some 77 illegal migrant workers, both men and women, have been apprehended during the February 1-7 crackdown, noting that all the illegal foreign workers, including 69 Cambodian and eight Myanmar, sneaked to work in Rayong's Nikhom Patthana and Pluak Daeng Districts. According to the provincial immigration police chief, a large number of migrant workers flocked to work in Rayong, where local agricultural, industrial and fishery sectors are expanding, most of them illegally entered Thailand through Sa Kaeo and Chantaburi Provinces in the Thai East with help from unauthorized brokers who reportedly charged them some 2,500 baht each. (TNA)