RANONG, Jan 22 – The seaboard province of Ranong has expressed a severe disapproval of setting up a temporary shelter for Rohingya migrants who illegally entered Thailand in the past weeks.
Col Narin Pannarai, deputy commander of Internal Security Operations Command’s Ranong Centre, said today that the province has to deal with problems arising from migrant employment and the existence of workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos. The southern province on the Andaman coast is opposite the Myanmar border.
Twenty-two Rohingya migrants who were recently arrested for illegal entry have been confined at Ranong immigration centre, he said, adding that the provincial authorities are working with related government agencies to deal with them on humanitarian basis as were the cases with other illegal migrants.
He called on the countries of origin which shelter the Rohingya minority people to solve the problem.
National police chief Adul Saengsingkaew said the policy of repatriating or sheltering the Rohingya migrants depends on the government’s decision. Police have coordinated with all parties concerned in providing special assistance to the ethnic people here, he said.
More than 800 Rohingya migrants were arrested earlier this month with most in the Thai-Malaysian border province of Songkhla. Some are in Satun and Narathiwat.
