Following a tip-off, a police-Army team went to the pier to check a suspicious long-tailed boat and found locals Halimee Hayibilang, 47, and Sorrae Rimad, 52, who were about to take six undocumented migrants hiding in the covered boat across the border to Malaysia.

In Malaysia, cheap labour at restaurants and on fishing boats is in high demand.

Police are attempting to find who hired the two Thais and whether the men had accomplices.

The team arrested another batch of five undocumented Myanmar migrants as they waited for agents at the pier area. The migrants had travelled from Perlis state in Malaysia to Satun province en route to returning home.

One of the migrants found in the boat told the authorities that they lived in an area bordering Ranong province and were told by Thai and Myanmar agents that Malaysia was in need of labours.

The migrant said they each paid Bt10,000 for transport to Langkawi, Malaysia, and Perlis.