NAKHON SI THAMMARAT - Fifty-three illegal migrants from Myanmar on their way to Malaysia were abandoned, with one suffering a broken leg, after a truck carrying them crashed in Na Bon district on Friday and the driver fled.
The crash happened on Asia Highway No 41 on the Thung Song-Surat Thani route in tambon Kaew Saen, said Pol Lt Col Phanuwat Rattanaphan, an inspector at the Na Bon station, who was alerted at about 7am.
Police and rescue workers arrived at the scene and found a six-wheel truck with its front badly damaged in the ditch dividing the road. It had crashed into a roadside power pole before plunging into the ditch.
When police removed the tarpaulin covering the bed of the truck, they found 53 men and women, all Myanmar nationals, crammed inside. Some had sustained minor injuries but one suffered a broken leg. They looked exhausted and nobody could speak Thai.
During questioning, they told police via an interpreter that the truck had been sent to pick them up from the Myanmar border as they were en route to Malaysia. They had paid 50,000 baht each to Thai job brokers. On the way, the truck crashed in Na Bon district and the driver fled.
Authorities were hunting down the driver to face legal action. The migrants would be sent back to their country.
Officers pull back a tarpaulin and discover 53 Myanmar nationals in the bed of a truck following a crash in Na Bon district of Nakhon Si Thammarat on Friday morning. (Photo: Nujaree Rakrun)
The migrants from Myanmar are taken from the damaged truck after the driver fled. (Photo: Nujaree Rakrun)
