Chinese Gangs Organizing Illegal Border Crossings into Northern Thailand

Thailand’s Immigration chief has reported that foreigners from China and Laos have been arrested for illegal entry into Thailand. Pol Lt Gen Sompong Chingduang said the foreigners have been arrested by immigration police over illegal entries by three different groups into Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai.

Pol Lt Gen Sompong said 29 people had been arrested, having been hired by Chinese gangs to make the illegal crossings into Thailand. The Chinese, who mostly run entertainment businesses in Myanmar and Laos, allegedly fled to Thailand to escape Myanmar’s Covid-19 outbreak.

The first 17 foreigners, 10 of them Chinese, were apprehended in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai and turned out to belong to a gang bringing Chinese people into Thailand illegally.

The first nine were caught outside a school in the Chiang Rai district of Thoeng. Police then nabbed eight more from the same gang as they were…