More than 50 Burmese illegal migrants have suffocated in the back of a lorry taking them into southern Thailand, Thai police say.

The 54 migrants were found dead inside the packed container lorry after dozens more managed to escape from the vehicle and flag down police.

Police said the migrants had suffocated after the air-conditioning failed.

Thailand acts as a magnet for poor Burmese workers, with thousands risking the often perilous journey there.

Enticing wages

Police said that the Burmese workers had crossed to the Thai town of Ranong from Burma's southern tip at Victoria Point - a route often used by illegal immigrants.

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Thai court clears Thaksin allies ... They had been packed into an airtight lorry for the journey to the resort island of Phuket, Col Kraithong Chanthongbai said, but the ventilation failed.

"When police got to the scene, they found that 54 of the workers were already dead in the packed container truck," the Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

Twenty-one other workers were taken to hospital, he said. As many as 46 other workers did not require hospital treatment and were detained.

The driver of the lorry fled the scene.

There are thought to be up to two million Burmese workers in Thailand, half of whom are in the country illegally.

They fill low-paid, often dangerous jobs in sectors including textiles, construction and fisheries.

But these jobs offer the migrants salaries that far exceed what they could earn in military-ruled Burma.

(BBC)

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