BANGKOK: More than 80 Muslim Rohingya asylum seekers from Myanmar detained in southern Thailand for illegally entering the country escaped from a crowded immigration detention center on Tuesday after nearly eight months in jail, police said.
Eighty-six out of 137 men at the immigration building used blades to cut the cell’s bars and ropes made of clothes to escape from the facility in Sadao district in Songkhla province early Tuesday, Police Col. Kan Thammakasem said. He said police were hunting for the men in nearby woods.
More than 1,700 asylum seekers from Myanmar’s beleaguered Rohingya minority are being held in various Thai detention centers after arriving by boat earlier this year.
86 Rohingya escape from detention
