Malaysia sends 58 exploited Thai workers back home

NARATHIWAT, THAILAND, May 19 (TNA) - A total of 58 Thai nationals have been assisted and sent back home, after they were cheated by a broker in the Thai far South to enter neighbouring Malaysia for jobs last month. Local police, along with officials of the Thai Ministry of Social Development and Human Security and other concerned agencies, received the 58 exploited Thai nationals at a border checkpoint in Narathiwat’s Sungai-Kolok District on Monday morning. The Thai nationals, whose hometowns are in Thailand's northern, northeastern and central regions, paid 21,000 baht each to an employment broker in Pattani Province in the Thai deep South in exchange for a promise that they would be employed in Malaysia. After entering into Malaysia with no jobs since April 20, 2014, the Thai workers decided to ask for help to be sent back home from the Royal Thai Consulate in the northern Malaysian Kelantan State. All the 58 Thai people were then interrogated at Narathiwat's home for children and families before they would be sent back to their hometowns, while the alleged employment broker, if found guilty, would be prosecuted on charge of human trafficking. (TNA)