SURAT THANI: Police are hunting for five Rohingya women and a three-year-old boy -- all but one of them human trafficking victims -- who escaped from a migrant detention centre in Muang district in the early hours of Saturday.
Police and volunteers rushed to the Sri Surat Home in tambon Khun Thalae shortly after being alerted about the escape at around 3am on Saturday.
However, authorities found no trace of the migrants on the site or in nearby areas, said Pol Col Sombat Chamsaeng, chief of the Khun Thalae police.
All of the escapees had been living on the second floor of the two-storey facility. A large hole was found in the ceiling of the first floor, suggesting that they might have climbed down through it and fled via an unlocked fire door before climbing over the fence, he said.
He said he believed the escape had been well planned and that someone might have been waiting to pick them up after they sneaked out.
The detention facility is located at a regional occupational training centre, the Sri Surat Home, run by the Ministry of Social Development and Human Resources.
Pol Maj Gen Apichart Boonsrirot, the Surat Thani police chief, said officers had been dispatched to locate the escapees, who may have fled to a neighbouring province where many other Rohingya migrants are staying.
He also ordered local police to work with the Sri Surat Home to install closed-circuit television cameras at the detention centre and nearby areas.
Of the six escapees, four women and the boy are victims of a human trafficking gang and the other woman is an illegal migrant. "They had been sent to the detention facility pending legal procedures against those involved in human trafficking,’’ said Pol Maj Gen Apichart.
Of the 94 Rohingya women and children confined in the centre, 35 are categorised as trafficking victims and the rest are illegal immigrants. Some others had tried to escape from the centre previously.
In June last year a disturbance broke out at the same facility after detainees were not allowed to bring food to their living quarters to celebrate Laylat al Baraat, a night of forgiveness and repentance and one of the holiest observances in the Islamic calendar.
Police have released ID photographs of the Rohingya migrants who escaped from detention in Surat Thani early Saturday. (Photo by Supapong Chaolan)