Oil palm and rubber plantations in Khiri Ratthanikhom, Tha Chang, Chaiya and Phunphin districts and Wipawadi sub-district have been left without workers during the peak harvest season.

A rubber farm operator who did not want to be named said even registered Burmese workers packed their bags and fled after they received telephone calls from their fellow workers.

He said he assured them that they would not be rounded up because their employment was legally registered, but they insisted on going out of fear of being prosecuted at home for illegally migrating.

“I said it was impossible for Burmese soldiers to arrest people on Thai soil, but they did not listen. The visit of Burmese Prime Minister Gen Thein Sein has intensified their fears,” he said, referring to the Burmese leader’s three-day official visit which ended yesterday.

“We have not tapped rubber for almost a week in Surat Thani and neighbouring provinces,” he added.

Pol Lt-Col Sommart Kiangsin, deputy police chief of Khiri Ratthanikhom district, said the rumours had been around for almost a week after three men in a pick-up truck seized migrant workers’ work permits at a palm plantation and threatened them with a crackdown.

Those workers called their friends and the rumours quickly spread, he said.

“Customs officers and border patrol police did not claim responsibility for the incident,” he added.

Provincial customs office chief Pol Lt-Col Krit Sangpol blamed the rumours on a recent inspection of a palm oil factory by administrative officials and defence volunteers, who wore camouflage uniforms and carried shotguns.

Burmese workers at the factory were fearful of men in uniforms and went on the run, he said.