Thai police arrest migrant workers using gas

Written by Khun Aung Myat  

14 July 2007.

The Thai police arrested Burmese migrant workers from a labour barrack in Mahar Chai near Bangkok by using an unknown gas yesterday morning.

According to migrants, when they were sleeping at 4 a.m. an unidentified gas seeped into the room. "We woke up when we got a bad smell. There was a burning sensation in our eyes and throat," an eye witness, Ko Min Min said.

"We coughed a lot. Spittle came out from our mouth and we felt very weak. We thought if we stayed in the room we would die. We have been living there for three or four years but we have never experienced anything like this before," he added.

Another migrant, Ko Nyi Nyi said "I heard the sound of a fire extinguisher in operation. It went 'shee sheee'. They injected gas into our room. I covered my face with a wet cloth."

The migrant workers came out. Policemen checked their labour registration documents. Then over 30 migrants, who had no documents, were arrested. Some workers tried to hide in the room to evade arrest, he added.

"I heard the voices of women who lived below my room. They coughed and cried out. Their rooms have windows unlike my room. It was like pouring water into an ant hole because there was no exit from our rooms," Ko Nyi Nyi said.

Nobody knew what kind of gas was used and its possible effect. There were pregnant women in the premises, he added.

The deadline for extension of labour registration was over therefore the Thai police arrested migrants with no documents or those who had not extended their documents nationwide by July 1.