By Nopporn Wong-Anan
SUKSAMRAN, Thailand (Reuters) - Survivors of a humansmuggling tragedy in Thailand, in which 54 people suffocated ina locked container truck, will be deported back to army-ruledMyanmar, a Thai court ruled on Friday.
Fifty survivors were fined up to 2,000 baht each for beingin the country illegally, but most could not pay and faced abrief jail term before they are deported, court officials said.
Another 14 youths were sent to an immigration centre toawait immediate deportation.
The driver, named by police as Suchon Boonplongin, haseluded a manhunt since he abandoned the truck late onWednesday.
Some 120 migrants were crammed upright in a 20-ft containerand began passing out when the air conditioning system failedenroute to the southern tourist island of Phuket.
"Police from various units are looking for Suchon and otherpeople involved in the trafficking ring," Police Major-GeneralApirak Hongthong told reporters.
Both men will be charged with conspiracy to hide, help orsmuggle illegal aliens into Thailand, and for careless actionscausing death, police said.
If convicted, they face a maximum 10 years in jail.
Survivors said they pounded on the sides and screamed atthe driver as the air grew thinner inside the stifling hotcontainer.
"We contacted the driver using a mobile phone, but he toldus 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 rightsgroups and renewed calls for tough action against humantrafficking networks in the region.
DESPERATE FOR WORK
About 2 million migrants from across the region are workingin Thailand, most of them fleeing the former Burma where 46years of army misrule have crippled a once-promising economy.
Only 500,000 migrants are in the country legally, a LabourMinistry official told Channel 9 television.
Under Thai law, registered migrants have the same rights asThais, but in practice this is far from the case. They areroutinely denied access to such basic rights as education,medical care and freedom of movement.
The vast majority of migrants are unregistered and workillegally in factories, restaurants, at petrol pumps and asdomestic helpers, or crew on fishing trawlers.
Once at work, many migrants, both legal and illegal, sufferabuse, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said.
Its research found 75 percent of Thai employers interviewedbelieved it was okay to lock up migrant workers so they"couldn't escape". There is also evidence of forced labour andchild labour involving migrants, it said.
Bangkok could not be held accountable for desperate peoplefleeing poverty, but was "obliged to prevent the exploitationof those migrants in Thailand, regardless of the documentationthey may or may not have", ILO East Asia Director Bill Saltersaid.
The Asian Human Rights Commission worried Thailand woulduse the tragedy as a pretext to crack down on migrantlabourers, who often do jobs Thais will not.
"These people are propping up their country's economy, andthus doing their part to prevent a much greater catastrophe onThailand's doorstep," it said.
Aye, whose 8-year-old daughter died in the truck, said shecould not provide for her other two children in Myanmar -- a10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son -- if she was unable towork in Thailand.
"I am very worried about my future. What will happen to mytwo children at home? I can't afford to live at home. There isnothing for me to do there," she told Reuters from her jailcell.
(Writing by Darren Schuettler; Editing by David Fogarty andJerry Norton)
