All the Cambodians working at the Pathum Thani building site where a six-storey condominium collapsed Monday, killing four people, were illegal, undocumented workers, the Phnom Penh Post reported today.
Rescue workers search the rubble of the U-Place condominium building site for survivors after the six-storey building collapsed Monday, killing four people and injuring 24. A new report said all the Cambodian construction workers employed at the site were illegal migrants. - Pattarapong Chatpattarasill
Three of the four people hurt and at least one of the 24 injured were migrant workers. Seven remained missing. The paper said 30 Cambodian nationals - all illegal - worked at the building site, but not all were working on the U-Place condominium project in Thanyaburi district about 4.40pm Monday, the paper said.
Earlier reports said 33 workers were employed there, of which 24 were Thai.
The Cambodians killed were Im Pheur, 27, from Prey Veng's Mesang district; Yat Pheng, 19, from Prey Veng's Svay Ontor district; and a third person identified only as Uch, 27, from Tbong Khmum's Memot district. The injured Cambodian was Chhim Chan, 60, from Kandal's Lvea Em district. The Post obtained the names from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Authorities are waiting to contact families before repatriating the bodies.
Witnesses said the building collapsed when workers were pouring concrete on the top floor of the structure. The three Cambodians killed were working on the second storey and their bodies have not yet been located, the paper reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying.
"Our ambassador visited a victim at the hospital, and we are also working with Thai police to demand the company pay compensation," ministry spokesman Koy Kuong was quoted as saying.
The contractor, Plook Plang Co, reportedly is owned by Chanaichon Kerdtes, son of Chalor Kerdthes, the former deputy police commissioner convicted of murder in a jewel theft case.
As of late Tuesday, Pathum Thani governor Phongsathorn Sajjacholaphan said a total of 33 workers were engaged at the site, but could not confirm if other migrant workers were there visiting friends when the structure fell.
He 19 of the 24 hurt already had been released from the hospital while six were still hospitialised, three of them in critical condition.
The governor said five people remained under the rubble, three of whom had been spotted by rescuers. Three victims were pulled out Tuesday.
The death and injury to the illegal workers occurred amid a much-publicized campaign by the National Council for Peace and Order to rid the kingdom of all illegals working in the kingdom.
After rumors of a violent crackdown initially sent hundreds of thousands of Cambodians running for the border, the campaign has shifted into a concerted push to get employers to register their migrant workers and obtain temporary work visas.