A woman died today and 10 sustained injuries, four of them serious, following an accident of an express bus close to Thomg pha phum. The injured were admitted to Thomg pha phum hospital in Kanchanburi province Thailand.

The accident occurred when the express bus was negotiating a curve called U-Nyaung before entering Thomg Pha Phum town about 160 kilometres from Kanchanaburi. The bus was traveling with two other express buses carrying illegal migrant workers.

According to Ko Lay from the FTUB who went to the hospital, an old man received serious injures with some of his bones broken while three others sustained head injuries.

Ko Lay said that a woman passenger died on the spot.

Following the accident, the drivers and the trafficker from the two other express buses picked up the uninjured people including the driver of the ill fated bus, who could walk, but left behind the dead woman and the 10 injured men.

Local people found the injured people and sent them to hospital.

The migrants entered at 1 a.m. in a group of 70 from Burma in three express buses. The bus which met with the accident was carrying about 23 people including the woman.

They changed vehicles three times from Three Pagoda Pass Township on the Thai-Burma border to avoid checkpoints and the police. First they changed vehicles in sugarcane fields and then in a rubber plantation.

Now three migrant workers with minor injuries have been detained in Thomg pha phum police station while seven are being treated in hospital.

Most of the migrants are Mon and they are from Kyaikmayaw Township Mon State and Kawbein, Kawpoik from Kawkareik Town Karen State.

A thousand migrants are waiting on the TPP border to enter Thailand, Nai Tee, a local trafficker told IMNA.

Thai authorities said recently more and more migrants are entering through the TPP border.

Independent Mon News Agency (IMNA)

June 6, 2008