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Migrant death truck driver sought
11/04/2008 11:32 - (SA)
Suksamran - A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for the driver of a container truck in which 54 Myanmar migrant workers suffocated as they were
smuggled into Thailand, officials said on Friday.
The owner of the truck, in which 120 migrants were crammed upright in the locked container and began passing out when the air conditioning failed, was arrested after he turned himself in for questioning on Thursday.
The driver, identified by police as Suchon Boonplong, was
believed to be hiding on the southern tourist island of Phuket
after he abandoned the truck late on Wednesday.
"Police from various units are looking for Suchon and other
people involved in the trafficking ring," Police Major General
Apirak Hongthong told reporters.
Both men will be charged with conspiracy to hide, help or
smuggle illegal aliens into Thailand, and for careless actions
causing death. If convicted, they face a maximum 10 years in
jail, police said.
Called driver on his mobile phone
Survivors said they pounded on the sides of the truck and
tried to call the driver on his mobile phone after the air
conditioning system failed.
"We contacted the driver using a mobile phone, but he told
us in Burmese to keep quiet and make no trouble," Tida Toy, 21,
told the Bangkok Post newspaper.
"He switched off the phone and drove on," she said.
Their horrific deaths have sparked outrage from rights
groups and renewed calls for tough action against human
trafficking networks in the region.
Some two million migrants from across the region are working
in Thailand, most of them fleeing the former Burma where 46
years of army misrule have crippled a once-promising economy.
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