More than 25 Burmese migrant workers die of infection on sea

More than 25 Burmese migrant workers die of infection on sea

Nai Chan Mon, IMNA
July 4, 2006

More than 25 of Burmese migrant workers working in a Thai Fishing
Company died from an unidentified infection on the Indonesia Sea,
according to an infected worker in hospital.

"Now about 12 patients, including Mon and Burmese migrant workers are
being treated in Samutsakhon hospital. Two are in the emergency unit,
Mehm Kor, a Mon migrant said.

"We don't know what kind of disease they are suffering from
because the doctor did not tell us till this morning. But they told us
would they get it checked in Bangkok," he added.

But Nai Soen Kha, a Mon medical worker who helped these migrant
workers, said it is a kind of lung infection because the patients
cannot drink and eat. They had chest pains and had difficulty in
breathing.

According to the migrant worker, the workers working in six fishing
boats had been infected for almost two months and had been dying one by
one.

"As far as I know, about 25 persons including Mon, Burmese, and at
least seven Thai men had died on sea and all the bodies were flung into
the sea," he added.

The six fishing boats returned to Samutsakhon seaport on July 2, night.
They were treated by Mon medical workers for awhile and were then sent
to hospital yesterday.

The dead Mon migrants are from Wette village Mudon township, Htinyu
village Thanpyuzayart township, and Hnitkayin village Ye township, Mon
state.

The migrant workers signed a contract with the Thai company for three
years to catch fish in Indonesian territory and they were allowed to
return to Thailand once in three years.

Today some of the migrant workers families offered food to monks for
theirs departed husbands and brothers.

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