54 Burmese Migrant Workers Suffocate in Border Crossing

They screamed an hour before driver halted
By Kate Rockwood,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 10, 2008 6:54 AM CDT
54 Burmese Migrant Workers Suffocate in Border Crossing
Thailand volunteer rescue workers collect the bodies of dead Myanmar migrant workers Thursday, April 10, 2008, from the back of a seafood van in Ranong, Thailand.    (AP Photo/Daily News)

Police yesterday discovered the bodies of 54 Burmese migrant workers who suffocated in a truck heading across the border to Thailand. Workers crammed in the 7-by-20-foot space, almost all women, say when they finally managed to alert the driver, he fled. Each worker paid $314 to be smuggled into Thailand, according to some of the 67 travelers who survived the ordeal, reports CNN. (More Burma stories.)

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