FIFTY-FOUR Myanmar migrants suffocated in a cold storage container while being smuggled to Thailand to escape desperate conditions at home, Thai police said yesterday.

The incident was the deadliest in a wave of recent tragedies as people flee economic collapse in military-ruled Myanmar in search of work in Thailand, where they often end up abused and exploited.

Police said that 121 people had been crammed inside the airtight frozen seafood container six metres long and 2.2 metres wide.

Colonel Kraithong Chanthongbai, police commander in southern Ranong province on Myanmar's border where the bodies were found late Wednesday, said the men and women were trying to get to Phuket island to work as day labourers.

But before they reached their final destination, 37 women and 17 men had suffocated in the stifling box which had a broken ventilation system.

"The people said they tried banging on the walls of the container to tell the driver they were dying, but he told them to shut up as police would hear them when they crossed through checkpoints inside Thailand," Kraithong said.

When the truck driver realised some of the migrants had died, he parked by the side of the road, opened the door to the container and fled, Kraithong said. Police were still searching for him.

Ten of the migrants remain in hospital suffering from dehydration and lack of oxygen, a hospital worker said, while the dead have been buried in temporary graves in Phuket until their bodies are claimed by relatives.

The 57 migrants who escaped unharmed or were released from hospital have been arrested, Kraithong said.

The Myanmar nationals, who were likely to be deported, had agreed to pay a Thai smuggling ring 5,000 baht (157 dollars) each for the journey.

(SD-Agencies)