Cambodian worker alleges Thai police of humiliating treatment, abuse

A Cambodian migrant worker has alleged that he and dozens of fellow migrants were arrested, beaten, stripped naked and shaved bald by Thai police, who then extorted money from them just because they did not have the correct location on their working visas. The allegation is the latest in a spate of exploitation scandals this year involving migrant workers in Thailand and came a day before the release of the US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons Report, in which the country is at threat of being downgraded. Construction worker Lim Srun, 50, said yesterday he and 39 others had been arrested on June 14 in Songkhla province’s Hat Yai district by Thai police who demanded 3,000 baht (US$95) from each worker for their release because their work visas were for Bangkok. … The migrants were sent by Cambodian labour firm AP TSE to work at a car wheel factory being constructed by the firm Christiani & Nielsen in January, which was withholding their passports and demanding they pay 3,900 baht per month in various fees, he added. …