China View 2008-04-10
BANGKOK, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The Thailand authorities will step up investigation of the 54 illegal immigrants from Myanmar dead in a truck in Thai south on Wednesday night, according to local media Thursday.
Thai police on Thursday arrested a suspected middleman behind the human smuggling tragedy where 54 illegal immigrants from Myanmar died in a truck in Thai south on late Wednesday night.
Damrong Pussadee, the truck owner, was arrested on Thursday morning at his residence in Ranong, the Thai southern province bordering Myanmar, according to news network The Nation.
The truck, designed to carry refrigerated seafood, was abandoned on roadside in Ranong's Suksamran district and found by Ranong police. It was carrying 121 Myanmar nationals who had been smuggling into Thailand by a fishing boat, and heading to the resort island province Phuket in further south, where the illegal immigrants expect to find jobs.
The Nation report quoted a senior police officer as saying that Damrong was just a middle man behind the human smuggling gang linked to the tragedy.
On Thursday, Thai Interior Minister Chalerm Yoobamrung instructed the governor of Ranong to speed up the investigation of the tragedy.
The interior minister said that he asked the Thailand's border-related authorities to consider stringent border-control measures to cope with illegal immigration, which he believed might help solve the problem more systematically.
"The illegal immigrant problem is one of the government's top priorities, but if the government is too strict, it might affect Thailand's industrial sector. However, laxity or not strict enough law enforcement, can also affect the country's security," said the minister.
Fifty-four of the 121 migrant workers including 17 men and 37 women died from suffocation due to poor ventilation and high heat inside the container, while 21 others were injured and hospitalized.
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