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GRIM: Truck owner Damrong Pussadee (above) arriving in court yesterday, while a policeman marks the arm of one of the 50 survivors of the truck ride that killed 54 others. The survivors are being held in police custody. -- PHOTOS: REUTERS
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BANGKOK - AMID outrage at the grim death by suffocation of 54 Myanmar migrant workers - most of them women - in Ranong on Thursday, the Thai authorities were searching yesterday for the driver of the container truck in which they died.
It is unclear whether the air-conditioning unit in the 20ft container was not working or the driver simply did not turn it on - despite a call from a mobile phone from the desperate migrants inside.
The driver, Suchon Boonplong, eventually stopped and opened the doors some time around 10pm on a rural road, and fled when he saw how many had died.
The authorities have arrested the truck owner, Damrong Pussadee, reportedly a used- car salesman from Ranong. He denied knowledge of the vehicle being used to carry people, but local police believe he may be part of the trafficking ring.
A Thai court yesterday sentenced the 50 survivors to a brief jail term after convicting them of illegal entry, and handed 14 children over to the immigration authorities for repatriation. Two survivors were still being treated for dehydration and lack of oxygen.
The swift prosecution has raised some eyebrows. Mr Philip Robertson, a South-east Asia-based consultant on labour and human rights, told The Straits Times that the authorities were taking a 'very doctrinal view of the law'.
'It is very important for these people to be allowed to stay and be treated humanely' to assist in the investigation into the trafficking ring, he said.
The incident also sparked calls for a more stringent crackdown on human trafficking in sensitive border areas.
The Bangkok Post quoted Mr Sunee Chaiyarose, one of Thailand's Human Rights Commissioners, as saying: 'This goes far beyond the driver and owner of the truck. We are looking at a larger network.'
Despite signing a Mekong region initiative to curb human trafficking, miserable economic conditions in Myanmar - and to a lesser extent in Cambodia and Laos - still produce a steady stream of migrant workers into far more prosperous Thailand, especially Bangkok and Phuket.
There are about 540,000 registered migrant workers in Thailand, mostly from Myanmar. But the real number including undocumented workers is estimated at well over 1.5 million.
Most migrants usually slave for a pittance well below Thai minimum wages and have no protection under Thai law.
The Asian Human Rights Commission yesterday warned the authorities not to use the incident as a pretext for a crackdown on migrant workers.
'Millions risk everything to leave Myanmar because life there is appallingly bad,' it said.
Mr Bill Salter, director of the International Labour Organisation's sub-regional office for East Asia, yesterday described the incident as an indication and consequence of a much larger problem.
Demand by Thai employers for migrant workers - documented or undocumented - was continuing and possibly even accelerating, he said.
Illegal trafficking and labour exploitation flourish when the formal system of recruitment and registration is too slow and expensive, and originating countries often cannot provide required documentation.
Thai Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung said agencies on the border would be told to step up controls.
But while he acknowledged that 'the illegal immigrant problem is one of the government's top priorities', he added: 'If the government is too strict, it might affect Thailand's industrial sector.'
In a message to Myanmar's Ambassador in Thailand, Thai Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama wrote that the incident 'underscores the need that we intensify cooperation to tackle the problems of human trafficking and of Myanmar illegal workers in Thailand'.
nirmal@sph.com.sg
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