PHUKET: International human rights agency Human Rights Watch today called for the Thai government to immediately halt its plan to deport ethnic Rohingya back to Burma. Thai authorities should allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN refugee agency, unhindered access to these and other boat migrants from Burma’s Arakan State to determine whether they are seeking asylum and whether or not they are qualified for refugee status, the New York-based rights group said. The call follows the move to
PHUKET: A boat carrying about 70 Rohingya fleeing persecution in their homeland in Myanmar were taken into custody by the Thai authorities off Phuket today. Local fisherman first sighted the boat off Bon Island, off Rawai Beach at the southern end of Phuket, and reported it to Rawai Municipality. “I was told by fishermen this morning that there was a suspicious-looking boat with many people on board floating off Koh Bon, so I reported it to Chalong Police,” Rawai Mayor Aroon Solos told the Phuket Gazette.
PHUKET: Speaking at a farewell function at Provincial Hall yesterday, outgoing Phuket Governor Tri Augkaradacha told the Phuket Gazette that the greatest challenges facing Phuket were preserving the island’s natural environment and meeting growing infrastructure needs. “Phuket is considered a world-famous tourist destination.
PHUKET: Phuket City Municipality together with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) Phuket Office, Old Phuket Cultural Foundation, Phuket Peranakan Association and the Old Phuket Town Community, yesterday held the opening ceremony of Phuket Moon Festival 2012. The Moon Festival, also known in China as the Mid-Autumn Festival, started yesterday at Queen Sirikit Park in Phuket Town will run until tomorrow evening.
PHUKET: Phuket City Police arrived at a shophouse in response to a burglar alarm raised early yesterday morning, only to find the thief already bound up. “We went to the scene with Kusoldham rescue workers. The entrance to the clothing shop on Soi Surin [near The Metropole Hotel] was locked.
PHUKET: Police today reopened roads in Phuket’s busiest tourist town of Patong after heavy rain there yesterday delivered floodwaters reaching depths of up to a meter deep, cutting off roads and access throughout the resort town.
PHUKET: Phuket Vice Governor Sommai Prijasilpa will take on the responsibility of Acting Governor from October 1 following the Thai Cabinet failing to name a successor to Tri Augkardacha, who will retire this Sunday, September 30. The news follows a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday not including the annual reshuffle of provincial governors on its agenda as Deputy Prime Minister Yongyuth Wichaidit did not attend the meeting, an officer at the Secretariat of the Cabinet told the Phuket Gazette. A date has yet to be set for Cabinet to decide on a list of 19 provincial governor positions that will be available come October 1.
PHUKET: Heavy rain across Phuket this morning has caused minor flooding in some areas and severely hampered traffic flow during the morning rush hour. The Phuket Gazette has received reports of minor flooding in Phuket Town, as well as some parts of Chalong and Patong
PHUKET: Paiboon Upatising, the president of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organization (PPAO), today replied personally by email to the Phuket Gazette to deny rumors that he has last stage cancer. “Don’t listen to all the rumors
PHUKET: Phuket police have arrested a security guard in Patong wanted on an outstanding warrant for charges related to terrorist activities in Thailand’s restive Deep South. The man had a bounty on his head of more than one million baht for his capture, said police.