Seven Thai children detained by Malaysian immigration for more than a month after accompanying two monks on a “fund raising trip” will soon be released with no charges pressed against them, according to the Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre (SPBAC).
The SBPAC said Thai officials were allowed to talk to the children at Baitul Mahabbah Darulaman immigration detention centre in Kedah state on Monday.
They were seeking the youngsters’ release in time to return to classes in Thailand for the new term. The Thai consulate general in Penang was preparing emergency travel documents for them.
The SBPAC said the Malaysian Immigration Department agreed to release them from detention without charges, but they were required to give testimony as victims before the court in Kedah, expected to be on June 2.
The seven boys, aged 5 to 12 years, crossed the border at the Sadao checkpoint in Songkhla province, in company with two monks, in three vans on April 7. They were stopped at the adjoining Bukit Kayu Hitam checkpoint in Kedah.
Malaysian immigration searched the vans found the children, who had no passports or other travel documents.
The monks were charged with human trafficking and people smuggling. They are believed to have been expelled from the monkhood.
Malaysian authorities said they had been secretly following the monks for years. They were suspected of using young Thai boys to solicit donations from Thai, Malaysian and Singaporean worshippers sponsoring a summer novice ordination programme they arranged every year.
For these seven boys, the monks convinced their parents to allow them to travel to Malaysia with them to participate in the novice programme from April 2 to 18. When one mother asked one of the monks about travel documents, she was told, “You don’t have to worry. It will be a short trip and we will return soon.”
Their parents never knew their sons had not been ordained as novices but instead detained by Malaysian authorities. They found out only when Thai communities in Malaysia posted messages on their Facebook accounts after the boys had been arrested.
When the same mother visited her son at the detention centre in Kedah in late April, she was told: “All the boys were told by the monks to hide in the back of the vans, underneath a large cloth”. That is where they were found during the search.
The woman was speaking at the Pavena Hongsakul Foundation for Children and Women on May 8, when she sought help for the children.