THREE Cambodian men were assaulted at a market in Thailand after a confrontation with market security guards, Cambodian officials said.

Dy Phen, chief of the Cambodia-Thailand Border Relations Office in Banteay Meanchey province’s Poipet town, said the incident occurred on Saturday near Rong Cleur market in Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province, a few kilometres from the border with Cambodia.

Six security guards from the market attacked the Cambodian men and beat them unconscious following an argument, Dy Phen said.

“This case is criminal, and there should not be a compromise,” Dy Phen said. “It is very unjust for the Cambodian workers.”

Dy Phen identified the workers as Pung Ny, 20, Mean Korn, 25, and Sen Sorn, 21, all Poipet residents who work for a water treatment company in Thailand. The Thai security guards escaped prosecution after they paid 10,000 baht (US$318) in compensation to each of the victims, Dy Phen said.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Koy Kuong said the Cambodian workers had been drunk at the time of the incident. He said that although the compensation payments had already been brokered, Cambodian consular officials in Sa Kaeo stood ready to assist if border officials or the men themselves wished to file a complaint.

Dy Phen said border officials believed compensation payments were not enough to resolve the incident.

“We are going to file a complaint about this,” Dy Phen said. “We are going to have a meeting to discuss this and find a way to stop this sort of thing from happening again to Cambodian workers.”

Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesman Thani Thongphakdi said he was unfamiliar with the case.

Dy Phen said hundreds of Cambodians in the area crossed into Thailand each day in search of employment; more than 8,000 such migrants, he said, had been deported from Thailand and returned via Poipet.