This family of five voluntarily returned to Laos at the end of last
month – part of a group of 56 illegal migrants who were taken to the
camp after being tricked into thinking it was a departure point for
onward travel to the United States.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/returnee56/2560943221/
At home in Borikhamxay province Mr Fongsong had seen his neighbours
receive money from their relatives in the United States . Gambling on
his future, he decided to risk everything when a man tricked him into
thinking he and his family could also get to America .
“I had heard that people who went to Krabok cave in Saraburi province
in central Thailand were able to get to the United States ,” he said.
Mr Fongsong sold all his cattle and his house to raise the money
demanded by the trickster. The man contacted Mr Fongsong by telephone
to arrange for him and his family to enter Thailand illegally and
charged him almost 8 million kip (30,000 Thai baht).
The family crossed the Lao-Thai Mekong Friendship Bridge in Vientiane
to the meeting point arranged with the trickster in Thailand .
