Illegal immigrants in Thailand sing for arresting officer after they found out it was his birthday

Illegal immigrants in Thailand sing for officer who arrested them after finding out it was his birthday

A massive bust became oddly jovial when one of the arresting officers received a surprise birthday cake.

This prompted the 22 illegal immigrants that the police had arrested to begin singing for him in celebration.

According to Naewna, the incident occurred late at night on 19 Jan on a highway north of Bangkok.

Police hail two suspicious trucks

Police spotted two pickup trucks travelling together at a high speed. The vehicles had dark-tinted windows and a tarp covering the truck bed.

Noting that the vehicles were making sudden lane changes, police decided to hail the vehicles and ask them to stop for inspection.

They found a total of 22 migrant workers from Myanmar on board the two vehicles. None had travel documentation. According to Khaosod English, police apprehended all of them, including three alleged smugglers.

Sudden birthday surprise

When questioned, the alleged smugglers revealed that they had been offered the job through a chat application. They were to transport the undocumented workers from Chiang Rai province in the north to Pathum Thani province, which is adjacent to Bangkok to the north.

They admitted to conducting four such operations previously. Each migrant worker yielded up to ฿3,500 (S$144).

Meanwhile, the workers told police they had crossed the border illegally in hopes of finding work in Thailand. They had paid ฿13,000 (S$536) to be smuggled into Thailand by water.

But things took a turn during processing at the station, when one of the arresting officers was surprised by his colleagues with a birthday cake. This prompted the workers awaiting processing to start singing “Happy Birthday” to him.