Death-truck survivors 'mistreated'

Bangkok Post Thursday, April 17, 2008

The 67 illegal job seekers who survived last week's tragedy in which 54 other Burmese suffocated in the back of a truck have been shoddily treated, the National Human Rights Commission says. Rights commissioner Sunee Chaiyarose said the migrant workers had been exploited and abused by a transnational human trafficking ring.

It was not right to fine them 2,000 baht, put them in jail for 10 days and send them back to Burma.

They would soon manage to sneak back to Thailand, she said.

Instead, the government should provide them with the protection and the humanitarian assistance they deserve.

''The government should take this opportunity to ask them for information about how they got involved in the racket and who the job brokers are,'' Ms Sunee said.

The NHRC, the Lawyers Council and human rights advocates will tomorrow visit the Burmese workers, who are detained at the immigration office in Ranong, and seek ways to help them.


''They had no choice but to become illegal workers. We want to talk with them and see if the commission and the Lawyers Council can do anything to help them,'' Ms Sunee said.

Adisorn Kerdmongkol of the Campaign for Democracy in Burma said last year alone saw a total of 503,000 displaced people from Burma cross into Thailand.

They remain hidden along the border between the two countries.

The displacement of migrant workers was partly the result of internal political conflict in Burma and of massive infrastructure development projects with Thai involvement, such as a gas pipeline project, the planned Salween dam construction and a contract farming project.

Mr Adisorn said Burmese troops had stepped in to ensure the work went ahead in areas where ethnic minorities lived, even if they opposed the projects.

These troops had been accused of human rights abuses of ethnics in Burma, particularly of women who were targets of sexual abuse, he said.

These people were forced to migrate across the border to seek jobs in Thailand.

Over the last two years, there have been repeated reports of migrant workers from neighbouring countries sneaking into Thailand.

At least 106 of them were known to have died while trying to cross into the country, 149 suffered injuries and 15 are still missing.

Most of them were Karenni and Mon people from Burma, and others Vietnamese and Lao.

They often migrated during the dry season, Mr Adisorn said.

Thai labour brokers were responsible for bringing the migrant workers into the country, either by boat or by land.

Early this year, seven bodies of illegal migrants from Burma were found in the reservoir of Sri Nakharin dam in Kanchanaburi, he said.

Authorities assumed that the workers tried to enter the country by waterways to avoid immigration checkpoints on land routes.

Usually, the workers travel on foot or by car, making their way through Sangkhla Buri or Thong Pha Phum districts in Kanchanaburi.

With tight immigration measures in place, they were forced to take a boat and travel through the dam instead.

''Similar tragedies have often occurred. They either died due to lack of air or drowned because the boat capsized.

'A lot of them died but did not make news headlines,'' Mr Adisorn said.

In Ranong, police yesterday took Suchon Bunplong, the driver of the cold- storage delivery truck in which the 54 workers suffocated back to 21 places to re-enact the smuggling operation.

Provincial police chief Apirak Hongthong was confident of getting solid evidence against the suspects in the case.

Mr Suchon surrendered to authorities.

Jirawat Sophapanworagul, the owner of the Choke Charoen fishing pier where the workers boarded the truck, and truck owner Damrong Phussadee were arrested.

Pol Maj-Gen Apirak said there were at least seven suspects in the case, although the names of the others could not be revealed.

In Nakhon Si Thammarat's Sichon district, another 21 illegal Burmese job seekers have been arrested off the coast while on their way to the province on board a fishing trawler.

Sanya Iadbangyee, the boat's navigator, was charged with human smuggling.