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World

Return home is not without problems as fear drives Cambodian workers to leave Thailand

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    Cambodian migrant workers get off a Thai truck upon their arrival from Thailand at a Cambodia-Thailand's international border gate in Poipet, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 17, 2014. The number of Cambodians who have returned home from Thailand this month after a threatened crackdown on foreigners working illegally has topped 160,000, a Cambodian official said Monday. Thai officials insist the cross-border movement is voluntary and is not forced repatriation. They say Thai military and government resources were used to transport workers who decided to return home after being laid off because they were working illegally. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (The Associated Press)

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    Cambodian migrant workers get off from a Thai truck upon their arrival from Thailand at a Cambodia-Thai international border gate in Poipet, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 17, 2014. The number of Cambodians who have returned home from Thailand this month after a threatened crackdown on foreigners working illegally has topped 160,000, a Cambodian official said Monday. Thai officials insist the cross-border movement is voluntary and is not forced repatriation. They say Thai military and government resources were used to transport workers who decided to return home after being laid off because they were working illegally. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (The Associated Press)

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    Cambodian Buddhist monks give donated dinner to migrant workers on their arrival from Thailand at a Cambodia-Thai's international border gate in Poipet, Cambodia, Tuesday, June 17, 2014. The number of Cambodians who have returned home from Thailand this month after a threatened crackdown on foreigners working illegally has topped 160,000, a Cambodian official said Monday. Thai officials insist the cross-border movement is voluntary and is not forced repatriation. They say Thai military and government resources were used to transport workers who decided to return home after being laid off because they were working illegally. (AP Photo/Heng Sinith) (The Associated Press)

POIPET, Cambodia – The number of Cambodian workers returning home under pressure from Thailand is approaching 200,000, and the returnees are making disturbing allegations about their treatment by Thai authorities.

Banteay Meanchey province governor Kor Samsarouet said Tuesday some 190,000 Cambodians workers have returned home this month, after the Thai military takeover on May 22. Most returnees passed through the border checkpoint at Poipet.

While rumors of beatings and even killings by the Thai military have not been confirmed, several refugees have told of being extorted by soldiers or having relatives taken away at gunpoint, with their whereabouts still unknown.

Hundreds of thousands of foreign workers, mostly from the poorer neighboring countries of Cambodia and Myanmar, fill low-paying jobs in industry and services shunned by Thais.