April 12, 2008
by News Desk / DPA

Thai police promised Thursday to round up a human-trafficking gang responsible for the death of 54 illegal Myanmar labourers who suffocated while being transported in a container truck to the resort island of Phuket. A 10-wheel container truck, usually used for transporting frozen fish, was found by police early Thursday, abandoned on a small road near Suksamlan village, about 450 km south of Bangkok, with 121 Myanmar nationals inside, 54 of whom were dead.

“We know which human-trafficking gang is behind this incident and we will round up their network,” said Ranong Police Chief Major General Apirak Hongthong. The dead included 37 women and 17 men. Another 21 were hospitalised, and the remaining 46 were arrested by police for entering Thailand illegally.

Survivors told police they were from Victoria Point Island in Myanmar, and had boarded the truck in Ranong to be taken to Phuket and other provinces to look for work.

About half an hour after leaving Ranong, the Myanmar nationals, who were packed in so tightly that they could only stand up, contacted the truck driver by hand phone and complained of the heat and lack of oxygen.

Police arrested Damrong Pussadee, the owner of the truck, and were hunting for the driver, identified as Suchon Boonblog. Damrong, believed to be part of a human trafficking ring, allegedly received 5,000 baht ($161) for each Myanmar worker he transported in his truck, police said.

Ranong police chief Apirak admitted that human trafficking was common in the province, which neighbours Myanmar to the west. Thailand has a huge population of illegal Myanmar labourers who are commonly employed on fishing trawlers, plantations and construction sites.

Although Thai authorities provide work papers for some of the Myanmar labourers, the vast majority work in the country illegally, subject to arrest and vulnerable to abuse by their employers.

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