Human trafficking: S'pore suspect held in Bangkok
Ang Mo Kio man nabbed with 4 Chinese women holding fake passports - believed to be headed for Europe as sex workers
By K.C. Vijayan
A SINGAPOREAN was nabbed at Bangkok airport on May 21 for alleged human trafficking as he was about to board a Turkish Airlines flight with four Chinese women holding fake Singapore passports.
It was the second such case in 10 days - a businessman from Singapore was arrested at a Pattaya health club on May 12 on suspicion of having brought Thai women into Singapore for prostitution.
Thai tourist police said that Edward Lee Kok Fai, 30, and the four women, who had fake Thai visas, were headed for Istanbul en route to Budapest. They suspect that the women were going to be sex workers in Europe.
Little has been revealed about the Singaporean, an Ang Mo Kio resident who claimed he was jobless. He is understood to have clammed up when questioned by the police.
Thai immigration authorities said he arrived in Bangkok on May 7. It was his second trip to the country.
Deputy tourist police commander Sakolrat Theerasawas told The Straits Times that the four women, who were from different parts of southern China and were between the ages of 19 and 21, were believed to have paid a total of 400,000 baht (S$17,000) for the trip.
They entered Thailand through Myanmar about three weeks earlier and stayed in Bangkok while documents were apparently forged for them.
The four women were said to have gone by the names of Peh Yen Ling, Ong Yi Leng, Ling Jesling and Florence Tan Nui Choo on their fake passports. Genuine Chinese passports were also found on them.
Lee is suspected of being on the payroll of a human trafficking gang in China, which smuggles women abroad to work as prostitutes.
'We will have to contact the Chinese and Singapore authorities to work further on the case,' Colonel Sakolrat said, adding that the five would possibly be deported within three months after being dealt with under Thai law.
'There have been several similar incidents involving forged documents at the airport in the recent past,' he said.
People from the Middle East, Iraq and Iran - holding forged passports of European countries - had tried to use Bangkok as a gateway to Europe.
Before Lee's arrest, Liu Bok Poh, 50, a Singaporean businessman, was picked up on May 12, allegedly for smuggling Thai women to Singapore for prostitution.
The Thai police, who had Liu under surveillance for more than three months, are now holding him on charges of working illegally in Pattaya, where he operated a health club.
