POLICE in Banteay Meanchey province have arrested a 24-year-old man accused of attempting to smuggle two men across the border into Thailand after promising to find them work, the provincial police chief said yesterday.

Hun Hean said the arrest had been carried out in Malai district after police stopped the car the three men were travelling in and found that the two would-be construction workers did not have passports.

“The suspect, An Sam Oeurn, told the two men that he would find them work in Thailand as construction workers that could earn a lot of money,” he said, and added that the suspect had ordered the two men to pay him 25,000 Thai baht (US$771).

He said that police had sent An Sam Oeurn to provincial court yesterday, and that the two men – 20-year-old Karus Bruma and 23-year-old Vy Parly – had been returned to their families.

So Vath, Banteay Meanchey provincial court prosecutor, declined to comment on the case, saying the court had only just received it.

Soum Chankea, provincial coordinator for the rights group Adhoc, said such cases were not uncommon, though he did not have statistics handy. “Many of the residents in Banteay Meanchey are tricked into illegal work in Thailand due to poverty,” he said.