Authorities have detained 327 Cambodian migrant workers believed to have been lured into the country by trafficking gangs, dealing a blow to the military’s hardline efforts to end the transnational labour trade.

The arrests, made during three separate operations yesterday, came as immigration police released 14 Cambodian workers from a prison in Sa Kaeo after finding they had fallen victim to a passport forgery gang.

The 327 Cambodians arrested yesterday were believed to have been among the tens of thousands who fled Thailand last month amid rumours of a looming military crackdown on illegal workers.

On their way back to Thailand via Sa Kaeo province, some workers were lured by brokers into bypassing a time-consuming process to obtain border passes at Poi Pet border checkpoint in Cambodia, investigators said.

The brokers charged them 2,500 baht per head before leading them through a forest along the border which serves as a secret route to Sa Kaeo, according to a Cambodian woman identified only as Joy.

Joy, who is eight months pregnant, was among 149 Cambodians who were found hiding in a sugarcane plantation during a pre-dawn raid by police and military officers on a home in Sa Kaeo’s Aranyaprathet district.

The officers also arrested a Thai woman named Chuthamat Onsopha, 27, and a 20-year-old Cambodian man who were found in the house.

About 5am yesterday, another group of 61 Cambodians was arrested as they were trying to enter Aranyaprathet district over the Thai-Cambodian Friendship Bridge.

Investigators said they had paid 2,000 baht each to Cambodian brokers for their entry into Thailand.

Around the same time, paramilitary troops arrested 117 Cambodians in a forest in Ban Song Phan Rai in the same district. None had legal travel documents.

Also yesterday, authorities released 14 Cambodians who had been charged with illegal entry after holding them in a Sa Kaeo prison for the past month.

Their release came two days after Thai political activist Veera Somkhwamkid, who served more than three years in jail for espionage, was released from a Cambodian prison. Authorities deny any prisoner exchange deal was made.

According to the junta, Thailand simply wanted to show “sincerity and good will” toward Cambodia by stepping up the probe into the 14 suspects. Sa Kaeo Provincial Court ruled that none of the suspects had any intention to commit wrongdoing.

By: Bangkok Post