Thai authorities speed up Rohingya trafficking case

SONGKHLA, THAILAND, June 18 (TNA) - Police and public prosecutors have worked against time to finish their investigative report on a recent Rohingya trafficking case in the Thai South, as they are scheduled to send the report to the attorney general by June 25. The Thai authorities said on Thursday that over 240 witnesses have been questioned and received protection, as followers of suspects have threatened them. According to the Thai authorities, arrest warrants have been issued against 89 suspects, 56 of them have been in custody but 33 others remain at large, while Lieutenant General Manas Khongpaen, a senior army officer-turned key suspect in the case, has been detained at a prison in Na Thawi District of the southern Songkhla Province, where a local court has approved the second period of his detention for another 12 days. Meanwhile, local authorities have already recaptured four illegal Rohingya migrants who recently escaped from their shelter in the southern Ranong Province. Information from locals led the authorities to the four male Rohingya illegal migrants while they were hiding in a palm plantation in a village of Bang Non Sub-district in Ranong's Muang District. The authorities questioned the four Rohingya Muslims on their escape motive and told them that the Thai government was speeding up solutions for migrants. (TNA)