Word: thai
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...made the perilous journey out of their Communist homelands there are few safe havens. Harbor police in Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysian ports sometimes sharply discourage boatloads of hungry and thirsty Vietnamese, who then set sail again to virtually certain death at sea. Last week the arrest of six Thai policemen pointed to the widespread mistreatment of the 2,000 boat people who have taken refuge in Thailand. The policemen were charged with looting and gang-raping about 30 Vietnamese in a fishing boat outside the coastal town of Nakhon Si Thammarat last month...
...have been subjected to extortion several times. First, illegal ship brokers in Viet Nam demand 20 to 35 taels of gold ($6,000 to $10,500 on the Saigon market) to put a family of six on a fishing junk with 150 other people. When the ships near the Thai coast, Thai naval patrols sometimes climb aboard and rob the refugees of their remaining money and belongings. At least 1,000 boat people from Viet Nam are currently living in abject squalor on a stretch of beach in Songkhla, near the Malaysian border. These refugees have thus far survived...
Escapees from Cambodia and Laos have fared somewhat better in Thailand. Explains a European diplomat in Bangkok: "The Thais will accept the Laotians as ethnic cousins, while the Cambodians are not a group to be greatly feared; after all, the Thais always got their slaves from Cambodia." Still, exploitation is rife in the U.N. camps. In April, 18 Thais were arrested for robbing refugees in a camp at Nong Khai that houses 26,000 Laotians. Camp officials encourage Laotians to find work outside the compounds. "Many factories in this country are looking for cheap labor," explains Nong Khai Governor Chamnarn...
...Michael Thai Santa Monica, Calif...
Sources say the police "turned the premises inside out," finding small quantities of marijuana in one suite, and marijuana and thai stick in the other. Police also confiscated vials of unidentified pills and powder for laboratory analysis. Police made no arrests...