The five departments, together referred to as the Maritime Enforcement Coordination Counter Area 3 (MEC3) are the Marine Police, Customs, the Marine Office, the Fisheries Office and the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources Conservation.
MEC-3, which is currently a coordination centre, is to be upgraded from October to an administration centre, under the leadership of Adm Sayan Prasongsamret, Commander of Royal Thai Navy Area 3.
“The upgrade will allow MEC3 to be more hands-on in dealing with cases,” Admiral Sayan explained.
“Before, we could only cooperate with each other to solve a case, but from October this year, the Navy will be the head, managing all departments to work together.”
“As for the operation strategy, we have to adapt as the situation changes. [For example], boats that bring Rohingya people across the Andaman sea [from western Burma] are becoming larger and more colourful, unlike the smaller wooden boats we saw before.
“While heading for their destination [Malaysia], they now often stop in a Thai province along the Andaman coast to rest before finding land transport to the border with Malaysia.”
He said the basic policy remains the same, however. If any of the departments in MEC 3 finds a boat with Rohingya or labour from neighbouring countries floating off Phuket, the team will not arrest them but will help them by coordinating with their country of destination.
But if they are found ashore they will be arrested and deported from Thailand.
However, he held out some hope for the refugees. The team continues to discuss the possibility of helping these boat people to find legal jobs in Thailand.