A man
from the south surrenders to police after a brief manhunt along the Thai-Malaysian
border
A
southern man alleged to be a suspected human smuggling kingpin was in police
custody yesterday after a brief manhunt along the Thai and Malaysian border as
part of the ongoing crackdown on a vast network in the trafficking of Rohingya
and other migrants.
Pajjuban
Angchotephan, also known by the alias of Ko Tong (Big Brother Tong), was flown
from the south to be paraded at a police conference at Don Mueang airport.
Royal
Thai Police commissioner General Somyot Poompanmoung dismissed reports that
police had a secret negotiation with him prior to his surrender.
Pajjuban's
request to be released on bail was rejected and he is being detained at the
Provincial Police Region 9, which covers provinces in the upper South where
Pajjuban is based and turned himself in.
A former
local politician in Satun, Pajjuban claimed that he had contacted deputy police
chief Lt-General Chakthip Chaijinda to arrange his surrender after learning
about the allegation against him from the news.
News
reports had quoted several senior police officers as saying police were trying
to coordinate with the Malaysian authorities to hunt down Pajjuban, who they
said had fled Thailand from his home province Satun.
In
related news, a senior officer at Khiansa Police Station in Surat Thani has
been transferred pending an investigation into an allegation he had benefited
from Rohingya smuggling.
Police
have also obtained arrest warrants for Pajjuban's wife, Thassanee, and a police
officer based in Ranong, Lieutenant Narathorn Samphan.
A
closed-door key meeting on the suppression of human trafficking was held
yesterday at a naval auditorium in Phuket.
The
attendants included civilian authorities from Phuket, Phang Nga, Satun, Krabi
and Ranong along with naval officers and military and police personnel.
Deputy
Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, speaking after the meeting, said that to
comprehensively tackle the problem all countries involved in the overall
smuggling process needed to address the issue and jointly work out the
solutions together.
He said
the Ranong governor had informed the meeting that the two prospective sites in
this province to be used as temporary shelters for the migrants were not
suitable, and the Police Immigration Bureau remained capable of housing the
existing migrants.
Meeting
in Kuala Lumpur today
Thailand
is currently hosting more than 1,000 Rohingya and other migrants, he said,
adding that there were now 28 suspects in custody, out of a total of 65 people
wanted under arrest warrants.
On the
international front, Foreign Minister Tanasak Patimapragorn will today join a
meeting with his counterparts from Malaysia and Indonesia in Kuala Lumpur to
discuss ways to tackle human trafficking, according to an official at the
Foreign Ministry.
"From
Thailand's point of view, international cooperation is needed to tackle the
problem in accordance with [a] humanitarian basis and international burden
sharing," said the ministry's spokesman Sek Wannamethee.
Malaysia's
Foreign Minister Anifah Aman called the meeting of the three nations after
thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants were refused permission to land
on any shore of these Southeast Asian nations.
Myanmar
said it acknowledged the international concerns over the fleeing of Rohingya
from its Rakhine state but insisted it should not be solely blamed for the
regional migrant crisis.
Information
Minister Ye Htut said his country understood "the concerns [of] the
international community on the people in the sea".
"Instead
of blaming Myanmar for all these problems ... all these issues should be solved
by the regional partners," he added in English following a briefing
between government officials and diplomats in Yangon.
Malaysia,
as the current chair of Asean, wanted Myanmar to hold an emergency meeting on
the issue but the government in Nay Pyi Taw offered a cold response to the idea
and suggested it would reject an invitation by Thailand to attend a meeting on
migration in Bangkok on May 29.
At sea,
the Indonesian navy prevented a suspected migrant boat from entering
territorial waters last weekend after the arrival of hundreds of Rohingya and
Bangladeshis and had stepped up patrols in the area, the military said
yesterday.
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