By Mathira Sutiwananiti, WVFT Communications

After ten long months of struggle, some justice has finally been delivered to the Myanmar migrant workers who died in the refrigerated truck tragedy last April.

On 9 April 2008, police found 54 Myanmar migrant workers suffocated to death in the back of a refrigerated truck in Suksanran district, Ranong province. A further 66 migrants survived the ordeal.

On 18 February 2009, the Office of Insurance Commission awarded 35,000 baht preliminary compensation to 33 heirs of the 37 deceased.

The decision marks a milestone for the protection of migrant workers’ rights and bilateral ties between Myanmar and Thailand.

“We have been fighting for this case because we believe that it can establish a new standard in the protection of migrant worker’s rights, which is something that we have to take into account,” said Oratai Junsuwanaruk, World Vision Foundation of Thailand’s Anti-Human Trafficking and Advocacy Programme Coordinator, after the decision in Ranong’s town hall.

World Vision Foundation of Thailand (WVFT) was one of the first organisations to step in and provide initial assistance to the migrant workers. They later played an active role in coordination between the Thai and Myanmar governments, the Lawyers Council of Thailand, Sathirakoses-Nagapradipa Foundation, Thai-Myanmar Township Border Committee (TBC) and World Vision Myanmar.

Within five months, 66 survivors from the truck were officially repatriated to Myanmar and the two truck drivers were sentenced for causing death by negligence.

However, the fact that the incident had taken place two months before Thailand’s new anti-human trafficking law became effective proved problematic. The Lawyers Council of Thailand resorted to Thailand’s Traffic Accident Victim Protection Act rather than to trafficking law.

“I’m not here for the compensation money. I want justice,” said one of the heirs, himself a survivor from the hellish ride. “It’s a mixed feeling. On the one hand, I’m glad that something has been done to prevent this from happening to anyone else but on the other hand it makes me sad. 35,000 baht means nothing to me. It’s incomparable to my wife.”

Legal repercussions from the tragedy continue. On 11 March 2009, the Lawyers Council of Thailand and 3 survived migrant workers attempted for the third time to file a criminal lawsuit against four defendants who have denied their involvement in the incident.

A major hindrance to bring the case to the next level still lies in the discrepancies between Myanmar and Thai laws especially concerning identity verification of the migrant workers.