BANGKOK, Thailand — Fifty-four illegal migrant workers from Myanmar suffocated in the back of a seafood truck in southern Thailand while being smuggled to the popular resort island of Phuket, police said Thursday.
An additional 47 workers survived the incident Wednesday and flagged down police for help, police Col. Kraithong Chanthongbai said. Twenty- one were hospitalized while the rest were detained for questioning, he said.
Of the dead, 37 were women and 17 were men. Police were searching for the truck’s driver, who had fled the scene, and members of the smuggling gang they believed arranged the trip.
Kraithong blamed the driver for failing to turn on the air conditioning in the back of the truck, which normally was used to transport seafood.
