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Myanmar container survivors appear in Thai court
11-Apr-2008

The survivors of a horrific people-smuggling accident which left 54 dead were brought to a Thai court on charges of illegal entry Friday. .

Fifty Myanmar adults are facing possible jail terms while 14 children will also be deported after the deadly trip across the Thai border in an airtight seafood container. .

Fifty-four others died Thursday inside the container, measuring just six metres (20 feet) long by 2.2 metres wide, as they fled economic collapse in their home country in hope of finding work on the Thai resort island of Phuket. .

The deaths shocked Thailand and sparked calls from human rights groups for tougher action against the human trafficking networks that smuggle desperate people into the kingdom in search of jobs. .

But police in the southern province of Ranong, where the bodies were found, said they would prosecute 50 surviving adults. The 14 minors who were travelling with their families have been handed over to immigration authorities for repatriation. .

Two other survivors remain in hospital where they are being treated for dehydration and lack of oxygen. .

"We charged 50 of them with illegal entry. There are 14 others who are under 18 years of age. We have sent them directly to immigration for repatriation," Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai, the local police commander told AFP. .

"I hope the court will hand down sentences later today," he said. .

The court could simply order their deportation, he said. But if the court fines the migrants and they are unable to pay, they could serve jail time, he added. .

Police have issued a warrant for the 38-year-old driver of the truck hauling the container, which he abandoned on a roadside after finding his passengers had died. .

The container carried 120 people trying to get from the border to Phuket. Police had earlier said 121 people were locked inside, but corrected their tally Friday. .

The owner of the truck company has surrendered himself to police, but denied any involvement in the trafficking scheme, Kraithong said. .

The Myanmar nationals had agreed to pay a Thai smuggling ring 5,000 baht (157 dollars) each for the journey from Ranong to Phuket. .

But before they reached their final destination, 37 women and 17 men had suffocated to death in the stifling box with a broken ventilation system. .

Survivors said they beat on the walls of the container to tell the driver that people were dying, but he told them to stop for fear of discovery by police. .

When the truck driver finally realised some of the migrants had died, he parked by the side of the road, opened the door to the storage box and fled, Kraithong said. .

The incident echoes a case in June 2000, when 58 Chinese immigrants were found suffocated to death in similar conditions in Dover, southeast England. .

About 540,000 migrant workers are registered to work in Thailand, most of them from Myanmar, labour ministry figures show, but as many as one million undocumented workers are believed to be in the kingdom. .

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. — AFP

todayonline.com

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Pansodan

Slow on realizing this- but it is pretty much exactly 120 sq.feet transport space, the traffickers planned for 120 people. There is a high probability that this is the "usual space".

Pansodan

Myanmar container survivors appear in Thai court









The survivors of a horrific people-smuggling accident which left 54 dead were brought to a Thai court on charges of illegal entry Friday.
Fifty Myanmar adults are facing possible jail terms while 14 children will also be deported after the deadly trip across the Thai border in an airtight seafood container.
Fifty-four others died Thursday inside the container, measuring just six metres (20 feet) long by 2.2 metres wide, as they fled economic collapse in their home country in hope of finding work on the Thai resort island of Phuket.
The deaths shocked Thailand and sparked calls from human rights groups for tougher action against the human trafficking networks that smuggle desperate people into the kingdom in search of jobs.
But police in the southern province of Ranong, where the bodies were found, said they would prosecute 50 surviving adults. The 14 minors who were travelling with their families have been handed over to immigration authorities for repatriation.
Two other survivors remain in hospital where they are being treated for dehydration and lack of oxygen.
"We charged 50 of them with illegal entry. There are 14 others who are under 18 years of age. We have sent them directly to immigration for repatriation," Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai, the local police commander told AFP.
"I hope the court will hand down sentences later today," he said.
The court could simply order their deportation, he said. But if the court fines the migrants and they are unable to pay, they could serve jail time, he added.
Police have issued a warrant for the 38-year-old driver of the truck hauling the container, which he abandoned on a roadside after finding his passengers had died.
The container carried 120 people trying to get from the border to Phuket. Police had earlier said 121 people were locked inside, but corrected their tally Friday.
The owner of the truck company has surrendered himself to police, but denied any involvement in the trafficking scheme, Kraithong said.
The Myanmar nationals had agreed to pay a Thai smuggling ring 5,000 baht (157 dollars) each for the journey from Ranong to Phuket.
But before they reached their final destination, 37 women and 17 men had suffocated to death in the stifling box with a broken ventilation system.
Survivors said they beat on the walls of the container to tell the driver that people were dying, but he told them to stop for fear of discovery by police.
When the truck driver finally realised some of the migrants had died, he parked by the side of the road, opened the door to the storage box and fled, Kraithong said.
The incident echoes a case in June 2000, when 58 Chinese immigrants were found suffocated to death in similar conditions in Dover, southeast England.
About 540,000 migrant workers are registered to work in Thailand, most of them from Myanmar, labour ministry figures show, but as many as one million undocumented workers are believed to be in the kingdom.
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.

yeah, right! Prosecuting the survivors deserves first priority

Pansodan

Thailand: Authorities must treat truck victims with dignity and according to law[at]WORLD[at]NEWS MyNews.in:

Thailand: Authorities must treat truck victims with dignity and according to law

dirtydog

By SUMETH PANPETCH,
Associated Press Writer.



More than 50 migrants from Myanmar who survived inside a sweltering truck in which 54 others suffocated while being trafficked to Thailand were found guilty Friday of illegal entry and will be jailed for two months and then deported, Thai officials said.
Fourteen other survivors under the age of 18 were sent home without trial, they said.
Human traffickers were transporting the 121 migrants inside the locked truck to the Thai resort town of Phuket on Wednesday night, but abandoned the vehicle _ normally used for refrigerated seafood _ when the cooler failed. Only 67 survived, including two who remained hospitalized Friday.
The truck's owner was detained, but the driver and the trip's organizers were being sought.
Prosperous Thailand is a magnet for people from impoverished neighboring Cambodia, Laos and especially Myanmar, also known as Burma, who take menial and dangerous jobs shunned by Thais. More than 1 million migrants from Myanmar are believed to be working in Thailand, often facing gross exploitation.
"Following voluntary migration to Thailand, men, women, and children, primarily from Burma, are trafficked into involuntary servitude in agricultural work, factories, construction, commercial fisheries, domestic work, and begging," the U.S. State Department said in its 2007 Trafficking in Persons Report.
One of the still-hospitalized survivors said he came with his 19-year-old wife, whom he had married just four days earlier, from Tavoy town in Myanmar's Mon state.
Ko Ko Lah said they paid about 12,000 baht (US$380; €240) each to a human trafficking gang to arrange the trip and met the other migrants at Myanmar's Victoria Point, just across a bay from Thailand.
They were taken at night by fishing boat to a quiet pier in Ranong town, where they were crammed into the truck's sweltering container area, about 2.2 meters (7 feet) wide and 6 meters (20 feet) long.
"The container was very jammed and dark, my wife and I were trapped in the middle. After about 30 minutes we found that we did not have enough air to breathe and everyone begged for help," he said.
"It was horrible, I heard people screaming, shouting and banging on the walls until I passed out," he said. "I regained consciousness and found that I was lying on the ground, confused. I crawled to the roadside and found some water there to drink."
Ko Ko Lah said he and his wife had hoped to find work on a rubber plantation in Thailand's Phuket or Phang Nga provinces, where three relatives had earlier found jobs.
"I do not know the fate of my wife, but pray that she is still alive," he said.
Others in the group were believed to be seeking jobs in Phuket's booming tourism sector.
The survivors, with the exception of the two still hospitalized, were taken Friday to Ranong provincial court where they were found guilty of illegal entry, said Col. Kraithong Chanthongbai, police chief for Ranong's Suksamran district.
Fourteen in the group under the age of 18 were sent back to Myanmar without trial. The others, unable to pay a 2,000 baht (US$63; €40) fine, will be jailed for two months before being expelled, he said.
He added the truck's owner, who denied any knowledge of the smuggling, was being held on a charge of conspiring to traffic the migrants.
The International Labor Organization, meanwhile, called on the Thai government to overhaul its system for employing foreign workers.
"While some may characterize this as a tragic accident, or even criminal negligence on the part of the driver of the vehicle in which the people died, it is clear that this occurrence is an indication _ indeed a consequence _ of a much larger problem," the U.N. agency said in a statement.
It said the demand by Thai employers for migrant workers _ documented or undocumented _ "is continuing and may even be accelerating. However, the formal systems of recruitment are not working."

©2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Northern Scum

So sad

John

Have heard so many stories with illegal workers. But cannot recall one where they even mentioned the people employing them here...

EmperorTud

Why isn't the truck owner facing a stiffer charge? 54 people have died FFS.

To then jail the survivors who cannot pay a measly fine is typical Thailand unfortunately. You'd hope they would show compassion to people that survived a near death incident and that would be sufficient to discourage them from reoffending but apparently not.

This country never ceases to disgust me.

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Thetyim

I presume he is admitting to being the truck owner but denying that he was aware of what the truck was being used for.

EmperorTud

If that was the case why did they charge him with "conspiring to traffic the migrants"?

Pansodan

John- I follow this situation for years intensively and do not know an answer how to react, still. If one makes REAL trouble it could mean that noone from that country is employed anymore, you know the historic ressentiments that exist towards Burmese already.... And you know what- most people crossing that particular border point (situation is sometimes different in some other areas) know that their journey and stay in Thailand, especially the border crossing, is not without danger, there is no complete naivety.

So they are aware of serious risks. The best answer to all this is to work on the causes- that is the devastating economic situation in Myanmar.

Smeg

What an absolutely terrifying horrible way that must be to die, forced to stand in a tiny space amongst 120 other screaming people locked in a roasting mobile coffin for 90 minutes.

I hope the scum that make money from this kind of thing burn in hell for eternity.

Smeg

On a very remotely related note, I made the mistake of catching the free bus from the BTS to the motorshow last weekend.

I got on the small pink bus and noticed that the aircon wasnt working. Then another 40 or so people crammed on and it was a sardine can. Then we hit traffic, and didn't move for 20 minutes. Nearly passing out from the heat, I very difficultly squeezed my way to the door and pressed the button above it showing an alarm signal. It sounded but even though the bus wasn't moving and was adjacent to the pavement, the door didn't open. I pressed it again, for longer. Again, nothing.

A thai men next to me told me to stop it and said the bus driver would only open the doors upon arrival at BITEC to stop people using it for free for journeys in between. I waited for another couple of minutes, as long as I could stand, then I rang the bell continuously. Several passengers shouted to the driver to open the door. He ignored them. I shouted at him to open the doors and called him a kwai. About a minute later, we still hadn't moved, and the doors eventually opened. I fell out of them, semi-concious from heat. Many others got off as well.

A ridiculous state of affairs

Pansodan

Won't say no names but it takes just 15 minutes to investigate to see who is really earning money from that.

EmperorTud

I drove up there one afternoon this year about 2pm and couldn't get parked.

I found it a tad ironic that there wasn't anywhere near sufficient parking for a Motor Show in Bangkok on a weekday.

Happyman

Horrible story

Give it a few days though and it will probably appear that the truck owners sisters brothers wifes brother in laws uncle is Pol Capt "Somchai" and the driver was using the truck without permission .

Smeg

Kind of suggests that they prefer people who don't already have a car, which kind of makes sense in a weird simplistic thai way......

Thetyim

I don't know.
Possibly to encourage him to pay the fine to have the charges dropped.

Hootad Binky

The "don't do the crime if you can't do the time" argument is only as good as the respect for human rights and law in a given country, and Thailand is pretty miserable on that score. "500,000" baht per trip? You bet the police and immigration are definately getting as piece of that, perpetuiating it, profiting from it, putting the survivors in jail because YOU MUST RESPECT THE JUST LAWS OF THAILAND

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Pansodan

That's the point. Prices for the transfer have risen during the last years...

The more desperate those people are, the more Burmese will pay.
Add the more "law and order" you claim, the more you can earn and justify your actions.