18/06/2014
Poipet (Cambodia) (AFP) - The
number of Cambodian labourers fleeing Thailand soared to 220,000 on
Wednesday, authorities said, as Phnom Penh accused Thailand's new
military rulers of sparking the flight of migrant workers.
Panicking
Cambodians -- who help keep major Thai industries afloat but often lack
official work permits -- have streamed across the border since the junta
warned last week that illegal foreign workers face arrest and
deportation.
At a meeting in
Bangkok Tuesday, Cambodia's ambassador and a top Thailand foreign
ministry official agreed to end "rumours" of a crackdown and set up a
hotline on labour issues.
But
Cambodian Interior Minister Sar Kheng later placed blame for the crisis
squarely at Bangkok's door, claiming the junta had caused at least
eight deaths and economic hardship for both countries.
"The total
number of Cambodians who have returned from Thailand between June 6 and
18 is 220,000 across the different checkpoints between the two
countries," Pich Vanna, chief of the Cambodia-Thai Border Relations
Office, told AFP on Wednesday.
At
the main border crossing in Poipet -- a bustling, seedy frontier town
home to large casinos and hotels -- around 3,000 Cambodian migrants
arrived in Thai military trucks and police cars by Wednesday afternoon.
The junta which took power
last month has insisted there is no crackdown and tried to calm the
panic that has seen the exodus of what could be, by some estimates, the
entire undocumented Cambodian population in Thailand.
On
Tuesday Cambodian Ambassador Eat Sophea dismissed rumours of the
shooting and abuse of Cambodian migrants by Thai authorities -- among
the factors believed to have triggered the mass departures.
But
Sar Kheng, who is also Cambodia's deputy prime minister, said the Thai
junta had deported them and urged them to take responsibility for the
upheaval.
"I think that the current leaders of Thai junta must be
held accountable for what has happened," he said in Phnom Penh, adding
that eight people had been killed in traffic accidents linked to the
exodus.
Sar Kheng said
Cambodian migrants had helped boost the Thai economy, which is the
second-largest in Southeast Asia and draws large numbers of migrants
from its neighbours.
"According to my informal information, (Thai) employers have started to protest against the issue," he added.
- Fear of arrest -
Kor
Sam Saroeut, governor of Cambodia's northwestern province of Banteay
Meanchey where the Poipet checkpoint is based, said the number of
migrants returning home was down compared with previous days, but he
still expected more to arrive."The fear among them has not faded away. That's why they keep returning to Cambodia," he said.
Arriving back on home soil Wednesday Kot Sok, 21, said rumours had triggered the flight.
"I heard that the Thai
military will arrest Cambodians. Six friends and I have come back
because we were scared of being arrested," he said.
The border relations official Pich Vanna said some of the returnees had been rounded up by authorities in Thailand.
"Some Cambodian migrants were rounded up from construction sites and put in trucks to Cambodia," he said.
Thailand's
military regime has strongly denied it has forced Cambodian labourers
out of the country and dismissed reports of killings as "groundless".Since last week's threat to arrest and deport all illegal foreign workers, the Thai foreign ministry has stressed the "great importance" of the role that migrant workers play in the economy.
There
has been no comparable exodus reported on Thailand's borders with
Myanmar or Laos, neighbouring countries whose migrant workers also fill
many of the kingdom's manual labour vacancies.
This
has led some analysts to suggest the Cambodian exodus may be linked to
the sensitive nature of diplomatic relations between Thailand and
Cambodia.
The coup in
Thailand on May 22 followed years of political divisions between a
military-backed royalist establishment and the family -- and supporters
-- of billionaire former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
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