BangkokPost-Nov 1

More than 30,000 illegal migrants have been deported since the beginning of the year with the numbers rising ahead of the country’s reopening on Monday, the Defence Ministry said on Sunday. Security authorities are stepping up efforts along the border to fend off illegal entry and other illegal transborder activities including drug trafficking, said Lt Gen Kongcheep Tantravanich, the ministry’s spokesman. The military is working with police and local authorities to suppress these activities, he said. Employers are also being encouraged to cooperate by not hiring illegal migrant workers who may not have been tested for Covid-19 and carry the risk of causing more outbreaks, he said. In past months, businesses had ordered workers from labor brokers, some of whom smuggle in unregistered workers from neighboring countries. State officials have allegedly been involved in these human trafficking activities and intelligence authorities are tracking them to establish a link with the human trafficking rings, he said. Most of the 30,343 illegal migrants detained were caught along the Thai-Myanmar and Thai-Cambodian borders, especially in Chiang Mai, Tak, Kanchanaburi and Chanthaburi, he said. Read more at: https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2207191/drive-to-keep-illegal-migrants-out