OleoCookie

BANGKOK (AFP) - - At least 54 Myanmar migrant workers suffocated to death as they were being smuggled into Thailand inside a cold storage container, police said Thursday.

The victims were among 121 people crammed inside a container that was six metres (20 feet) long and only 2.2 metres (seven feet) wide, said Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai, commander of the local police station in the Thai border province of Ranong where the bodies were found late Wednesday.

Twenty one people also suffered from a lack of oxygen inside the container and were taken for treatment, he said.

The airtight container was normally used to carry frozen seafood.

The migrants were supposed to pay a Thai smuggling ring 5,000 baht (157 dollars) each to transport them from the Myanmar-Thai border in Ranong to the nearby resort isle of Phuket, he said.

Once there, they hoped to find work as day labourers, he said.

When the man driving the truck carrying the container realised some of the migrants had died, he parked on the side of a road, opened the door to the container, and fled the scene, Kraithong said.

"The people said they tried to bang on the walls of the container to tell the driver they were dying, but he told them to shut up as police would hear them when they crossed through checkpoints inside Thailand," he told AFP.

The bodies of the dead have been taken to a cemetery, where they will be buried in temporary graves until they can be collected by relatives, he added.

The 46 people who survived the ordeal without injury have been arrested, he said.

About 540,000 migrant workers are registered to work in Thailand, most of them from Myanmar, according to the labour ministry.

But as many as one million undocumented workers are believed to be in the kingdom, where they often face exploitation by their employers, according to rights groups.

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xxbluexx

pay to get killed~

hai~

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Huaikong

really risking their lives under such cond......

CaRe

They really risk their lives to get freedom.

*StarDust*

They died just like the Chinese died in a container in UK long time ago.

inle

sad incident....

-=[Zephyr]=-

human labor exploitation... as long as poverty issue remains, this problem will nvr cease to exist...

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urawks

aiyo..risk their life like this.

add me on msn n friendster;
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visit my blog!!

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wsh79

its a poor thing...those who survived the ordeal still have to pay fine, if not go to jail and have to be transported back to their country in the end...its like suffer for nothing...we should really appreciate that we are staying in a good country, though everything increases, but its a worldwide phenomenon..n Singapore i would say is still considered as one of the cheapest city to live in...

Selling My beauty Diary Masks, pet bowls & many more....

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Creator

Back in the old days, got china illegals come into HK during many times in history. MY grandpa was one of them.

uyen

not worth to risk one;s life over this ...

人情味不是偏私而是博爱，

不是施舍而是关怀。

不是表面的礼貌，

而是内心的尊重。

Friends will bail you out of jail.but Best Friends will be sitting by you saying,
" that was awesome !"

Huaikong

illegal one meh?i tout last time all no govt one.haha....

haruX

lack of oxygen.... inside mus be oh my godly stuffy and hot and...... like hell..?

wsh79

Last time when i was in UK, i also heard news of china men hiding in container like that....but tat time was summer, n it was damn hot...so same thing like Myanmar...alot died...
the trafficker is the culprit..he only cares about earning $$

Selling My beauty Diary Masks, pet bowls & many more....

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Voodoo Vince

Thai driver of fatal smuggling truck surrenders


Suchon Boonplong, 38, gave himself up to police on Tuesday morning. -- PHOTO: REUTERS

BANGKOK - THE Thai driver of a truck in which 54 Myanmar migrants suffocated to death has surrendered and confessed to his role in last week's human smuggling tragedy, police said on Wednesday.

Suchon Boonplong, 38, gave himself up to police on Tuesday morning, said Major General Apirak Hongthong, Ranong provincial police commander.

'He confessed that he was hired by the owner of the truck to transport those people to Phuket for 80,000 baht (S$3,442),' Maj. Gen. Apirak said.

Of the 120 migrants fleeing economic collapse in Myanmar and seeking a better life in Thailand, 37 women and 17 men suffocated to death in the stifling storage container with a broken ventilation system.

They had clambered into the container - measuring just six metres long by 2.2 metres wide - in southern Ranong province near Myanmar's border last Wednesday evening.

The men, women and children were trying to get to the resort island of Phuket to find work as labourers, but within hours they were dying.

Suchon told a press conference that he stopped answering his mobile phone and at first ignored the desperate bangs coming from inside the box, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported on Wednesday.

When he finally pulled over and opened the door, Suchon saw that many of his human cargo had died, so he ran away, the paper said.

Maj. Gen. Apirak said that Suchon faced charges of smuggling illegal migrants into Thailand and gross negligence causing death and injury. He could serve 10 years in prison if convicted.

Suchon is the third suspect arrested in connection with the deaths. The owner of the truck and the owner of the pier where the migrants were smuggled onto the container are already in police custody.

Of those who survived the horrific journey, 46 are in prison facing a 2,000 baht fine for illegally entering Thailand.

Maj. Gen. Apirak said that most could not afford the penalty and would therefore serve 10 days in prison.

Of four who have paid the fine, two are awaiting deportation and two are being held as witnesses, while children and teenagers among the migrants are being held in the Ranong immigration centre.

Myanmar is one of the world's poorest countries, its economy battered by decades of mismanagement under military rule and further hampered by Western sanctions imposed over the junta's human rights record.

Thousands of people from Myanmar illegally cross the border into Thailand each month seeking a better paid job, but often end up exploited by employers. -- AFP


http://www.straitstimes.com/Latest%2...ry_227805.html

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