Thailand seeks int'l cooperation on solutions to Rohinya-related problems

BANGKOK, May 14 (TNA) - The Thai government will hold a meeting with representatives of foreign countries and international organisations in Bangkok on May 29 to discuss cooperation on solutions to Rohingya-related problems. Anusit Kunakorn, Secretary-General of the National Security Council Office (NSC), told journalists on Thursday that the Thai government has invited the international representatives for the May 29 meeting to jointly discuss approaches on addressing the Rohinya-related problems. Anusit pointed out that international cooperation on the Rohingya-related issues is needed because Thailand is not the origin of the problems, but having been used as a transit point for illegal Rohingya migrants before they are led to third countries, their targeted destinations. According to the NSC chief, Thai Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-ocha has given a policy that all illegal Rohinya migrants who are arrested and detained in Thailand are to be taken care based on human rights principles. Asked whether the Thai government would open a centre to specially shelter Rohinya migrants, the NSC chief revealed that there have been no talks on the idea, expressing his view that a shelting area for human trafficking-affected people might be set up instead under an international supervision. Prime Minister General Prayut acknowledged, in the meantime, that Thailand cannot afford a permanent refuge for Rohingya migrants, as proposed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), because the Kingdom has already taken care of over 400,000 displaced people at nine refugee camps which have been set up in the country so far. Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister General Tanasak Patimapragorn also stressed on the same stance on Thursday when opening the Development Cooperation Seminar on Migration in Bangkok, in which representatives from the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) also participated. Meanwhile, Lieutenant General Prakan Cholayuth, Commanding General of the 4th Army Area Command, led soldiers, police, administrators and residents of Talo Village in Padang Besar Sub-district of Songkhla Province in the Thai far South to destroy migrant detention camps on the Kaeo Mountain to stop human trafficking there. Local officials also prepared to exhume bodies from 19 graves on the Kaeo Mountain in Padang Besar, an area close to nearby Satun Province assumed to lie on the way of illegal Rohingya migration. So far they have found 36 bodies on the Kaeo Mountain. Regarding legal actions, 26 out of 61 suspects facing arrest warrants in the alleged cross-border trafficking of Rohingya Muslims have been in Thai police custody and a latest suspect has turned himself in to the chief of Rattaphum District in Songkhla, admitting that he had supplied medicines to Rohingya detention camps on the Kaew mountain; while 35 suspects remain at large, including a key suspect. Deputy National Police Chief Police General Aek Angsananont noted that assets, worth 204 million baht, have already been seized from suspected human trafficking networks in Ranong, Satun and Nakhon Si Thammarat Provinces in the Thai South and local police have had the whole picture of their networking, covering the migrants' arrival provinces in Ranong and Satun and the end of their Thai-section migration route in Songkhla. (TNA)