Thai Press Gives Conflicting Reports on Chams

Thai media reports yesterday offered conflicting information on whether members of Cambodia’s Cham community were joining a long-running Muslim insurgency in Thailand’s southern provinces. … According to the [Bangkok] Post, General Prayuth said most of the Cambodian Muslims were traveling on to other countries in search of work, but that he had asked the immigration bureau and customs department to help track down an unspecified number who should have returned to Cambodia but had not, as they may be joining the insurgency. … Far from posing a threat, he [Moeun Tola, head of the labor program for the Community legal Education Center] said Cambodians heading to Thailand, Muslims or otherwise, were more likely to be victims, often having their passports confiscated and driven into debt bondage by unscrupulous employers. … Thai reports from earlier in the week claimed that the government also planned on asking Cambodia for help surveying Muslims that cross the border. …