BANGKOK – Fifty-four illegal migrants from Myanmar, most of them women, suffocated in the back of an unventilated truck in southern Thailand while being smuggled to the resort island of Phuket, police said yesterday.
The victims, along with 67 survivors, had entered Thailand to seek jobs in the booming tourist centre. The 121 jobseekers had been forced to ride standing in the 2,2 metre by 6 metre container area of the locked and sweltering truck, normally used to carry seafood, police and survivors said.They were on the road in Ranong province near Myanmar for about two hours late on Wednesday when they started collapsing, they said.Temperatures in the province reached 34 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.”I thought everyone was going to die,” Saw Win, a 30-year-old survivor, told The Associated Press from police custody.”If the truck had driven for 30 minutes more, I would have died for sure.”He said that about 30 minutes into the trip the occupants pounded from the inside of the truck, screamed for air and used a mobile phone to call the driver, who briefly turned on air-conditioning.The air-conditioning later shut down, and they called the driver again 30 minutes later but his phone was off.They continued pounding and screaming until he stopped the truck about an hour later, unlocked the door and ran off when he saw the state of the victims, Saw Win said.A translator for police said the air-conditioning had broken down while the truck was waiting for a police checkpoint to close for the night.It was only when nearby villagers heard screams and banging from the vehicle that they came to investigate and opened the doors, he said.Thirty-seven of the dead were women and 17 were men.Nampa-APThe 121 jobseekers had been forced to ride standing in the 2,2 metre by 6 metre container area of the locked and sweltering truck, normally used to carry seafood, police and survivors said.They were on the road in Ranong province near Myanmar for about two hours late on Wednesday when they started collapsing, they said.Temperatures in the province reached 34 degrees Celsius on Wednesday.”I thought everyone was going to die,” Saw Win, a 30-year-old survivor, told The Associated Press from police custody.”If the truck had driven for 30 minutes more, I would have died for sure.”He said that about 30 minutes into the trip the occupants pounded from the inside of the truck, screamed for air and used a mobile phone to call the driver, who briefly turned on air-conditioning.The air-conditioning later shut down, and they called the driver again 30 minutes later but his phone was off.They continued pounding and screaming until he stopped the truck about an hour later, unlocked the door and ran off when he saw the state of the victims, Saw Win said.A translator for police said the air-conditioning had broken down while the truck was waiting for a police checkpoint to close for the night.It was only when nearby villagers heard screams and banging from the vehicle that they came to investigate and opened the doors, he said.Thirty-seven of the dead were women and 17 were men.Nampa-AP
