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The Thai military junta released 14 Cambodian migrant workers imprisoned last month for holding fake working visas, a Cambodian spokesman said Friday.
"Thai authorities had freed them after they determined that the workers were also victims because their brokers made fake documents for them," Koy Kuong, spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters. "Those workers, including 10 females, returned to Cambodia this (Friday) morning."
The workers were arrested last month in Thailand while they tried to return to Cambodia amid a sudden mass exodus of migrant workers from Thailand.
The release came just three days after Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni granted a royal pardon to a convicted Thai yellow-shirt activist Veera Somkwamkid during a visit from acting Thai foreign minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow.
During a meeting with Sihasak at Phnom Penh's Peace Palace on Tuesday, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen requested the Thai junta to consider the release of the 14 workers.
The prime minister said those workers were also victims of human trafficking because they asked a ringleader to do work permits for them, but the ringleader used fake stamps on their work documents.
The two governments have denied that the releases were a prisoner swap.
