By Thai Newsroom Reporters
CERTAIN HOUSES IN VICINITY OF Three Pagodas Pass border area in Kanchanaburi are suspected as clandestine passageways for human trafficking and goods smuggling scams.
Members of the House Committee on National Security, Border Affairs and National Strategies and Reform have recently visited Three Pagodas Pass area in Sangkhla district of the western province and suspected that those houses near the Thai-Myanmar border pass may have been literally used as illicit channels for human trafficking and goods smuggling rackets, House committee spokesman/Move Forward MP Piyarat Jongthep said today (Dec.19).
Though those houses near Three Pagodas Pass are owned by Thai nationals, furnished with land title deeds and located in Thai territory, their backyards lie adjacent to Myanmar territory in Payathonzu township of Kayin State across the border from Sangkhlaburi district.
The ordinary-looking houses, each of which might currently sell for as much as several millions of baht, are suspected to have been literally used as passageways for such illegal, cross-border businesses, Piyarat said.
However, the House committee plans to conduct an in-depth inquiry into the matter and find out whether any misconduct on the part of government personnel on the Thai side of the shared border may have occurred in an alleged conspiracy with suspected, cross-border human traffickers and goods smugglers, he said.
CAPTIONS:
Three pagodas standing side by side at the pass named after them. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Photo: Sanook.com
Insert: House Committee on National Security, Border Affairs and National Strategies and Reform spokesperson/Move Forward MP Piyarat Jongthep. Photo: Thai Rath
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