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Bangkok: The driver of a truck in which 54 illegal immigrants from Myanmar suffocated last week has surrendered and confessed to working for a human smuggling network, Thai police said on Wednesday.
Suchon Bunplong, 38, turned himself in on Tuesday after a six-day manhunt, said police officer Kraithong Chanthongbai.
"He was scared he would be killed by the others involved (in the network), so he surrendered for his own safety," said Kraithong, adding that police were searching for two other suspects identified by Suchon.
He said the driver had been hired for 74,000 baht (Dh8,676) to take the migrants from the border town of Ranong to the resort island of Phuket in southern Thailand. He was paid half the money in advance and was to collect the rest on arrival.
The tragedy has shed light on the brutal cost of human trafficking and the plight of desperate jobseekers in parts of Southeast Asia.
The 54 who died were among 121 people crammed into the truck's sweltering 6-metre container, which was locked and unventilated.
About 30 minutes into the trip, the passengers began pounding on the walls and screamed for help, survivors said last week. They used a mobile phone to call the driver, who briefly turned on air conditioning.
The air conditioning later shut down, and they called the driver again but it had apparently been switched off.
Suchon told police he ignored the ringing phone because he was driving at night and trying to concentrate on a dark, winding road, said police Lieutenant General Apirak Hongthong. Suchon said he also feared that if he stopped the truck he would attract attention from other motorists.
About two hours into the journey, Suchon pulled over, unlocked the container and quickly fled when he saw the state of the victims, police said.
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