Chinese air hostess arrested for 'smuggling migrants across Thai-Malaysian border

A Chinese former air hostess was arrested in Thailand for allegedly smuggling migrants across the Thai-Malaysian border.

Pan Yutong, 34, reportedly supplied fake passports and helped traffic migrants through the border in southern Thailand.

Officers launched a probe following intelligence that Chinese nationals had crossed into Thailand through natural border routes in Narathiwat province.

The group were reportedly staying at a hotel in Hat Yai before travelling further inland.

Police surveilled the hotel on October 15 before two Chinese men emerged and waited in the car park. The air hostess arrived shortly afterwards in a hired vehicle to collect them.

Cops stopped the group and checked their passports, with the two men allegedly admitting they had entered Thailand illegally.

Pan allegedly told police she had been instructed to pick up the pair and provide them with passports so they could continue their journey to Bangkok.

She was also linked to another smuggling attempt involving a 25-year-old woman, Mila, who was travelling towards Malaysia with a Vanuatu passport.

Mila was arrested at the Padang Besar checkpoint after police found her hidden beneath clothing in a car allegedly smuggling her through the Padang Besar Immigration Checkpoint.

Further investigations found she was actually Chinese. She is understood to have entered Thailand illegally before being handed over to another agent at Hat Yai Airport for transport across the border.

Police Colonel Charoenphong Khantilo, spokesman for Immigration Division 6, said five suspects, including a Thai driver, were arrested during the operation.

Pan and the driver were charged with assisting and sheltering foreign nationals who had entered Thailand illegally, while the three Chinese nationals were charged with entering and remaining in the country without permission.

The spokesman said: 'The Chinese female suspect previously worked as a flight attendant for an airline in China before resigning to study in Thailand, while simultaneously coordinating travel for Chinese individuals seeking to enter and leave Thailand both legally and illegally.

‘We suspect the network may be linked to a citizenship-trafficking ring, as we discovered a second Mexican passport belonging to one of the Chinese male suspects and found that the suspect registered as a Vanuatu national is actually of Chinese nationality.

‘Additionally, multiple photos of Vanuatu passports belonging to Chinese individuals were found stored on the Chinese woman's mobile phone.

‘The commander of Immigration Division 6 has ordered further investigations to expand the crackdown and apprehend additional perpetrators.'

The arrests comes as police crack down on migrant smuggling in southern Thailand, where suspected human smugglers were allegedly trafficking Chinese nationals into Malaysia to work at scam call centres.