More illegal Rohingya migrants flee from Thai immigration custody

BANGKOK, August 20 (TNA) - More than 80 illegal Rohingya migrants have escaped from the Sadao police station in Thailand's southern Songkhla province, but two of them have been found. Songkhla Governor Krisada Boonrach ordered local administrators, immigration police, local police and territorial defence volunteers to trace the 87 Rohingya migrants, who escaped from the Sadao immigration police station on early Tuesday morning. The governor said that the fleeing Rohingya Muslims were believed to try to sneak out across the border to neighboring Malaysia, and that the two Rohingya migrants, who had been found, were exhausted and injured, as they jumped from their living quarter, about 10 meters above the ground. Authorities concerned are looking for the other fleeing Rohingya migrants at local rubber plantations and nearby areas. All the escapees will be charged with fleeing police custody and damaging property. Meanwhile, Sadaoo immigration police have taken care of a total of 137 Rohingya migrants, dozens of them tried to escape because they had been detained for months pending the government's arrangement for their trips to third-party countries, after being rescued from human traffickers. Earlier, 30 Rohingya migrants escaped from Sadao immigration police on August 9 and almost all of them have been already found. (TNA)