54 Myanmar migrants suffocate in container

Fifty-four illegal Myanmar migrants, most of them women, suffocated as they were smuggled into Thailand in a cramped seafood container, police said yesterday.

Another 67 were rescued from the 6-m container truck, with more than 20 being treated in hospital, the police officer in the western coastal Thai province of Ranong said yesterday.

"They were kept inside the sealed truck for hours without air because the air-conditioning system failed. Many of them pounded the sides of the truck for help," Sergeant Phuvanai Wattanasamai said.