The raids were conducted to prevent any illigal human trafficking, reported Vice Admiral Cherngchai Chomcherngpat of the Royal Thai Navy Third Area Command.
V/Adm Cherngchai also serves as Director of the Third Area Command’s Maritime Enforcement Coordination Centre (THAI-MECC Area 3), which conducted the inspections yesterday, led by Capt Kriangkrai Lai-ngern of Phuket Naval Security Control Centre.
The Hua Hin class patrol boat 543 was used to carry out the inspections.
Present to oversee inspections were Phuket Vice Governor Pichet Panapong, and Thanapong Orachorn from the Department of Labour Protection and Welfare.
Of the 147 fishing workers found on the four boats, 76 were Thai nationals, 31 were Myanmar nationals, 38 were Cambodian nationals and two were Lao nationals.
“The results of the inspections, which included random interviews of the workers on the boats, showed that there were no illegal acts or human trafficking,” said Vice Governor Pichet.
“The inspections went very well. All fishing crewmen had proper identification documents making sure that they were not illegal migrant workers,” he added.