Myanmar workers were furious after police detained their colleagues who were trying to return to their homeland to help relatives affected by the military coup protests.

Officers pounced on 20 Burmese workers who were preparing to cross the border in Songkhla province on Tuesday evening (April 6) allegedly with the help of an illegal broker.

Hundreds of colleagues at the factory claimed that their boss was preventing the group from leaving and erupting in fury from their sleeping quarters.

Officers arrivers and calmed the workers while explaining that there were restrictions on travel and they they would have to go through the correct visa procedures and Covid-19 quarantine.

Major General Achan Chansiri, Deputy Chief of Police in Songkhla province, said: ‘I lead the team to control and suppress the crowd as they were becoming very rowdy and we wanted to stop the scene escalating into violence.

‘We found that 20 of the group had asked to resign because they wanted to travel back to Myanmar to be with relatives who were dealing with deaths or injuries from the political violence.’

The officer said the group were returned to their accommodation and they are now mediating with them and the employer to find a way for them to return to Myanmar.

The death toll in Myanmar has reached 550 after unrest erupted due to the military coup on February 1.