The mother was placed under arrest for child endangerment in Surat Thani yesterday, Patong Police Chief Col Aganit Danpitaksat explained at a press conference at Patong Police Station this morning (Sept 29).
The mother, named as Myanmar national Ei Ei Phyu, 40, was arrested at a workers’ camp in Tambon Tapan, Phunphin District, Col Aganit said.
Col Aganit explained that the officers checked CCTV footage in the area around Aroonsom Square plaza, where the baby was found, to Soi Eden, off Rat-U-Thit 200 Pi Rd.
Police showed Myanmar workers living in the street images from the CCTV footage and asked if they knew the woman.
Officers were told that the woman was also a Myanmar national and used to work for an Indian restaurant in Patong. The restaurant owner confirmed that he knew the woman and confirmed her identity, Col Aganit said.
“One of the Myanmar workers police questioned said that the mother had taken a passenger van from Surat Thani to Patong to visit her friend and stay for a night. In the morning, she took a bus from Patong to Phuket Town,” Col Aganit said.
Officers then checked bus services from Phuket to Surat Thani, and confirmed that Ms Ei Ei Phyu had disembarked a bus in Phunphin District.
Police checked with hospitals in the area and confirmed that she had given birth to the boy at Tha Rong Chang Hospital on Sept 9, Col Aganit said, without revealing the name of the boy.
“Police went to the location of her address given by the hospital and found Ms Ei Ei Phyu at a workers’ camp in Tambon Tapan,” he said.
Col Aganit confirmed that Ei Ei Phyu had been brought back to Patong Police Station and changed with “Abandonment of a Child” under Section 308 of the Criminal Code.
As such, Ms Ei Ei Phyu now faces up to three years imprisonment or a fine of up to B6,000, or both.
Col Aganit confirmed to The Phuket News this evening that officers from the Phuket office of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security had been informed of Ms Ei Ei Phyu’s situation.
“They will come to help Ms Ei Ei Phyu, but we don’t know when. Tomorrow, she will be taken to Phuket Provincial Court in the morning,” Col Aganit said.
Col Aganit explained that Ms Ei Ei Phyu already had one child, but was abandoned by her husband when she became pregnant with her second, the now newborn boy.
The restaurant in Patong where she worked closed due to the COVID-19 economic crisis, and unable to cope financially Ms Ei Ei Phyu sent her firstborn back to Myanmar.
Ms Ei Ei Phyu found work in Surat Thani, and moved there, where she gave birth to the boy.
“She did not have enough money to support her second child, so she decided to take public transportation from Surat Thani province to Phuket to leave her child here in the hope that he would be found safe and that someone else would be able to take better care of him,” Col Aganit explained.
Additional reporting Eakkapop Thongtub