By Bernama,
Bangkok : Thailand will issue a law prohibiting human trafficking on June 6 following a tragedy earlier this month in which 54 illegal Myanmar job seekers suffocated to death in a truck in the southern province of Ranong, Thailand News Agency (TNA) quoted senior officials as saying Monday.
The decision was made after a meeting earlier Monday between six government agencies and representatives from private organisations.
Currently, the Kingdom has a more modest law barring the trafficking of children and women and the new law which prohibits the activity will substitute for the current one, they said.
Participants at the meeting told a press conference that the 66 surviving workers from the April 10 tragedy, where 54 Myanmar citizens were found dead in a truck, would be charged with illegal entry and would be jailed and a fine of Bt2,000 baht each. (RM1=Bt10)
Workers without money to pay as fine would be jailed for 10 days instead, said Immigration Police commander Pol. Lt-Gen.Chatchawal Suksomjit.
The survivors would also be asked to testify as witnesses against those who had been apprehended and initially charged with negligence causing deaths to others, said Chatchawal.
Six Thai nationals — five men and a woman — have been arrested to date, while it is believed that several others, now still at large, are behind the illegal activity.
The April 10 incident has drawn great attention, nationally and internationally, to the plight of migrant workers who are willing to risk their lives escaping the hardships in their country in search of what they believe to be a better life.
And in economic terms it is, unless that life ends altogether, as it did for 54 women and men in search of something better.