Group of Burmese migrant workers escapes detention area at Samut Sakhon market during “hard lock down”, three captured in Chonburi - Pattaya News

Group of Burmese migrant workers escapes detention area at Samut Sakhon market during "hard lock down", three captured in Chonburi

Tuesday, 22 December 2020, 23:02

Samut Sakhon –

A group of Burmese migrant workers reportedly escaped from a detention area for Covid-19 Coronavirus at Samut Sakhon market province today, December 22nd.

An investigation follows viral photos of broken walls being shared on social media since this morning, stating that several Burmese workers broke the wall and destroyed barbed-wire fences behind the detention building and fled from the quarantine.

The set of pictures caused fear and panic among local residents and Thai social media users nationwide who started to ask the Thai government for more strict measures on high-risk groups.

Samut Sakhon governor Weerasak Wijitsaengsri told the press as of this afternoon that the pictures were not captured at today's time and it was an abandoned and unfinished concrete wall that had been used as a shortcut route to the shrimp market for a long time, the migrant workers did not break it.

However, he admitted that there were some Burmese workers who had fled the detention area but the number was still under investigation. Samut Sakhon police were deployed and ordered to install more razor wires and concrete bars at the wall to prevent more workers to escape the area.

The surrounding area of the shrimp market and several nearby fresh markets have been "locked down" since the number of local Covid-19 cases had reached hundreds within 3 days after the first case was found. The migrant workers were also not allowed to leave the area since.

PHOTO: เครือสหพัฒน์-แหลมฉบัง-ชลบุรี

Initially, three Burmese workers were captured in the Bowin-Si Racha area of Chonburi by Bowin police authorities, reasoning that they wanted to make a visit to their friends in the area. All of them were detained and taken for a health screening afterward.  According to authorities they had no contact with the general public and had not previously tested positive for the Covid-19 coronavirus. Authorities stressed for the public to not panic.