BANGKOK, July 20 (Xinhua) -- A total of 118 Myanmar nationals have been rescued from a row of shophouses on Bangkok's southwestern outskirts, police said on Thursday.
Those Myanmar migrants were found to have lived in poor conditions at the crowded, rented shophouses provided by an unidentified employer in a suburb area of Samut Sakhon province, about 50 km southwest of Bangkok.
The 118 Myanmar males and females included 58 migrants who have already landed jobs in Samut Sakhon while 60 others who are jobless, the police said.
All the Myanmar migrants were found to hold valid passports without visa since they entered Thailand via Sing Khorn border pass in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, about 280 km south of Bangkok, several months ago, the police said.
Each of the migrants allegedly paid a range of 15,000 to 20,000 baht (about 441 to 588 U.S. dollars) in cash to cover expenses on their travels and documentations. The money had been handed out to job agents inside Myanmar who had allegedly promised them jobs in Thailand, the police said.
Thai authorities are to investigate those job-seeking migrants to see if any of them may have been victimized by human traffickers either inside Myanmar or Thailand or both.
Hundreds of thousands of Myanmar migrant workers are reportedly living and working in and around Samut Sakhon, either legally or illegally. Most are employed in fishing industry, seafood processing and manufacturing factories.
While taking steps to legalize migrant workers nationwide, Thai authorities have taken measures against any human trafficking rackets preying on job-seeking Myanmar migrants, including a new law under which any employer who may have violated it will be charged with a very costly fine amounting to a maximum of 800,000 baht (about 23,500 U.S. dollars) for each illegal migrant employee.
However, the enforcement of the law has been delayed until Jan. 1 next year to give the employers more time to have all their migrant workers legalized.
