Rohingya Muslim illegal immigrants gather at the Immigration Detention Centre.
THAILAND - Ten Rohingya detainees escaped at dawn yesterday from a detention facility of the Ranong Immigration Office.
It is the latest in a series of Rohingya escapes from various facilities in the past few months. The 10 escapees were part of a group of 118 Rohingya detainees at the facility.
The Ranong Immigration Office has begun a manhunt for the 10 runaway Rohingya.
"We have handed out their photos to motorcycle-taxi riders, community leaders and local people in a bid to track them down," office chief Ekkorn Bussababordin said, adding that he believed the 10 escapees were still in Ranong.
Ekkorn said that he would step up security measures at the detention facility to prevent further escapes.
Thousands of ethnic Rohingya from Myanmar's Arakan State have been arrested in Thailand for illegal entry.
In Satun, just two out of 31 Rohingya boys remain in custody at the Satun Home for Children and Family - the rest have run away. The shelter's head, Kachen Sangphet, said his facility admitted 31 Rohingya boys aged between 15 and 20 on January 30.
"On March 2, eight of them ran away," he said, "Then, more of them fled."
Kachen said he had alerted the relevant authorities about the Rohingya boys' escape.
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