The girl, who cannot for legal reasons be named, pleaded not to be sent back to her “parents” for fear they would beat her. The “parents”, an official told The Phuket News, are not her real parents but a Vietnamese couple.
The girl told officials that when she had been caught in the past and returned to her “parents” they were fined by the officials and she received a caning, as many as 30 strokes with a stick. She said she would like to be returned home to Cambodia.
Another official (none of the officials wanted to be named) explained afterwards, “Phuket has a lot of this kind of [illegal street] business, such as misuse of endangered species and other wild animals, and children being sent out to work selling things.
“We make constant patrols but it is difficult because they have lookouts who warn them we are coming. So that, we have to rely on other people tipping us off.”
Patong Deputy Mayor Chairat Sukabal has ordered a strict policy of arrests, with wild animals and cameras being confiscated and the offenders fined B2,000.