DESPERATE FOR WORK
Some 2 million migrants from across the region are working in Thailand, most of them fleeing the former Burma where 46 years of army misrule have crippled a once-promising economy.
Only 500,000 migrants are in the country legally, a Labour Ministry official told Channel 9 television.
Under Thai law, registered migrants have the same rights as Thais, but in practice this is far from the case. Migrants are routinely denied access to such basic rights as education, medical care and freedom of movement.
However, the vast majority are unregistered and work illegally in factories, restaurants, at petrol pumps and as domestic helpers or crew on fishing trawlers.
The Asian Human Rights Commission said the perpetrators of the truck tragedy must be brought to justice, but authorities should not use it as a pretext for a crackdown on migrant labourers.
"Millions risk everything to leave Burma because life there is appallingly bad," the Commission said, noting that they often do jobs that Thais will not.
"These people are propping up their country's economy, and thus doing their part to prevent a much greater catastrophe on Thailand's doorstep," it said.
The survivors were due to appear in court in the southern province of Ranong on Friday to face charges of illegal entry. Police said some could be deported immediately after the hearing.
Aye, whose 8-year-old daughter died in the truck, said she could not provide for her other two children in Burma - a 10-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son - if she was unable to work in Thailand.
"I am very worried about my future. What will happen to my two children at home? I can't afford to live at home. There is nothing for me to do there," she told Reuters from her police cell.
