A Thai insurance company is set to pay compensation to the families of 54 Burmese migrant workers who suffocated in the back of a truck while attempting to sneak into Thailand. The payment, scheduled for tomorrow, comes almost a full year after the tragedy.
According to Tin Htun Aung, migrant secretary of the Federation of Trade Unions – Burma (FTUB), 46 family members will receive payment from the Liberty Insurance Company in Ranong on February 18th. The family members survive 54 people who suffocated to death in April 2008. The victims, as well as 66 other workers who survived, were attempting to covertly travel to Phuket, Thailand in a cold storage container.
According to Tin Htun Aung, the families will receive 35,000 baht ($992.51 USD) and are potentially eligible for another 65,000 baht down the road. “The Liberty Insurance Company will pay 35,000 baht first to each migrant workers’ family, and after finishing their case they could be paid the rest of the money,” Tin Htun Aung told IMNA.
According to a report by the Bangkok Post in July, more extensive compensation will only be awarded if the victims are “found to have not committed any crime.” The Bangkok Post based its report on information from Suwanna Suwanjutha, director-general of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department of Thailand.
The extensive delay between the tragedy and payment of compensation is due to the logistical difficulties associated with finding family members inside Burma, explained Tin Htun Aung.
According to an NGO worker in Ranong who asked not to be identified, the 46 family members have already arrived in Kawthaung Town, in Burma’s Tenasserim Division. Kawthaung lies just across the border from Ranong, the southernmost crossing between Thailand and Burma.
The families will receive the compensation from an insurance office on the Thai side of the border, Tin Htun Aung said. Assistance will be provided by the FTUB, the Law Society of Thailand and Rangoon-based migrant NGOs. Many of these organizations were also instrumental in pressuring the Thai government into assuring the families receive compensation.
In other contexts, family members of Burmese workers killed in accidents similar in type, if not scale and international attention, are paid no compensation. In December 2008, 7 Burmese workers attempting to travel to Bangkok were killed in a truck accident when their Thai driver fled Thai police. None of the families are slated to receive any compensation.
