Thai military to step up security measures along natural borderlines to keep out trespassers

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Friday instructed military commanders to step up security measures along the country's borderlines to keep out any suspected trespassers from neighboring countries, an army general said.

Prayut, who concurrently acts as defense minister, chaired a monthly meeting with high-ranking military commanders at the Ministry of Defense during which he ordered the stepped-up security measures in the Thai territory, according to the ministry's spokesman Lt. Gen. Kongcheep Tantrawanich.

In particular, Prayut advised to step up security measures along the country's natural borderlines through which any unwelcome persons may trespass across from a neighboring country, Lt. Gen. Kongcheep said.

His directive followed reports of a number of Myanmar and Cambodian nationals who have been arrested by Thai authorities on illegal entry charges after they had evidently trespassed into the Thai territory through natural borderlines over the last several weeks.

The authorities have feared those suspected invaders might be infected with the coronavirus, Kongcheep said.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)