Forty-one illegal migrant workers from Burma have been found hidden inside the tank of a gasoline transport truck while they were being smuggled from the border to Thailand's capital, police said Friday.

Police stopped the 18-wheeled truck in the border province of Tak early Thursday and found the workers inside the tank, said police Maj Rangsiman Songkhotham.

They looked exhausted due to heat and lack of air, he said.

"Two or three of them fainted after they got out. I think there would have been people dying if the truck had driven on,'' he said.

The driver planned to put about 40 more workers into the tank before he was stopped by the police, the officer said. He said that each of the workers paid about 4,000 baht for the trip to Bangkok.

"Burmese workers want to go to Bangkok because they return home with more money,'' Rangsiman said.

The illegal migrants will be deported to their home country.

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled the repressive military regime in Burma in search of better economic opportunities in Thailand. Many of them do not go through official channels and find themselves exploited by unscrupulous employers.

The government started to register migrants from Burma, Cambodia and Laos following the influx from these less economically developed neighboring countries.

Bangkok Post

Mid-day news from channel three. Another petrol tanker was arrested for illegally transporting 79 illegal migrant hiding inside the petrol tank at mae sot - tak province.

Edited December 15, 200619 yr by Thaising

Police arrested 79 illegal labourers from Myanmar

The Provincial Police Region 6 arrested a group of 79 illegal labourers from Myanmar and a Thai guide in Mae Sod district, Tak province. Recently, police officers are intensifying their inspection on human trafficking along the border areas of Thailand.

Pol. Lt. Gen. Adisorn Nonsi, the Provincial Police Region 6 commissioner-general, was informed by the patrol officers that illegal labourers from Myanmar attempted to enter Thailand illegally. Later, a team of police in Mae Sod inspected a six-wheel truck from Nakhon Sawan, and the driver was identified as Mr. Phetcharat Phupa, 32. The container of the truck was loaded with 79 illegal immigrants from Myanmar, and 33 of them were males while 46 others were females. Mr. Phetcharat then confessed to the police that the group of illegal immigrants would be delivered to different provinces in Thailand.

Pol. Lt. Gen. Adisorn said police also previously arrested a Thai navy officer who was involved in human trafficking. This guilty navy officer had already killed a police officer who was investigating his case.