A few days ago, a public welfare funeral organization that provides assistance to residents in Thailand and Burmese spoke out that in the Chumphon Immigration Bureau Detention Center in southern Thailand, some police officers are collecting fees from Burmese prisoners on the grounds that they have completed their hometowns as soon as possible. It is reported that the name of the non-profit organization is SAFWA.
According to sources, more than 50 Burmese laborers were detained in the Chumphon Provincial Detention Center, and local police officers charged each Burmese prisoner more than 7,000 baht on the grounds of arranging for returning home. Historically, the cost of repatriating Burmese workers escorted has been borne by Thai authorities, and law enforcement has no authority to charge any fees to prisoners.
Gothazo, a member of the SAFWA organization, said that the completed prisoners have been in the detention center for more than two months, and that Chumphon province will only send the completed prisoners to the border after the Ranong Provincial Immigration Bureau issues a notice of acceptance. When we went to visit them, we heard about the local police charging them 7,300 baht per person.
Gothazo continued to say that similar things have happened before, and if you want to transfer from Phuket Province and Surat Thani Province to Ranong Province, the prisoners need to pay 5,000~10,000 baht. Only when money is given can they go home early, and Burmese people who have been arrested for various reasons will ask their families for help after completing their sentences.
On January 28 and 29, Burmese workers who had been detained for months at the Ranong Provincial Immigration Bureau Detention Center went on a hunger strike. After consultations with border authorities between the two countries, more than 600 Burmese prisoners were repatriated to Myanmar on February 2.