Press Release: Myanmar migrant worker died in custody in Ranong
Press Release
Myanmar migrant worker died in custody in Ranong
The Human Rights and Development Foundation (HRDF)’s Anti-Labour Trafficking Project aims to offer legal assistance to survivors of trafficking in persons and human rights violation faced by migrant workers. We also offer legal counseling and coordinate the legal cases as well as represent the survivors of human rights violation in the court to assist them and their descendants in their attempt to demand their due rights according to the law through an effective judicial process in compliance with the rule of law and human rights principles.
HRDF and the Cross-Cultural Foundation (CrCF) have been informed of a case of one Myanmar migrant worker, Mr. Thant Zin Oo, aka Puta, who died while being held in custody by inquiry official of the Pak Nam Ranong Police Station following his arrest and being charged of having narcotic substance in possession after his urine test. The police raided his residence on 13 October 2022. Mr. Thant Zin Oo was brought to hospital by the police on the same day and died on 16 October 2022. Witnesses of his death included his mother, his wife, and his mother’s employer who saw while Mr. Thant Zin Oo was suffering from a serious headache until he passed out while being in the police custody. In addition, according to his wife, she heard the noise which sounded like someone was beaten up in the building where Mr. Thant Zin Oo was being held in custody.
Based on oral evidence and autopsy report, his family complains that he could have been abused while being held in police custody and died as a result within four days after his arrest and treatment at a hospital in Ranong. An investigation on his case has been opened and the inquiry official at the Pak Nam Ranong Police Station is compiling evidence in order to send his autopsy report to the public prosecutor for a post mortem inquest. His body has been transferred to the Central Institute of Forensic Science for further examination of the cause of death. The legal team is preparing to send letters to ask for the result of the autopsy on behalf of the attorneys and his mother. At the moment, his relatives cannot acquire his body for funeral service since officials at the Ministry of Justice’s Central Institute of Forensic Science claim that they have to wait for a letter of certificate from the Myanmar Embassy. In our view, the coordination with the Embassy will take some time given the unstable situation inside the country which may impede any coordination on urgent matters. And in this case, the transfer of body was coordinated directly between the Ranong Hospital and the Central Institute of Forensic Science. Therefore, his body should be sent back to the hospital for his relatives to collect and to bring it to the proper funeral service.
Both Foundations demand that concerned authorities perform their duties properly and shed light on the truth to the relatives and the public so that they know if Mr. Thant Zin Oo’s death could be attributed to an act of torture or not and if there were officials from any agencies who were involved with the commission of the offence against the Myanmar migrant worker or not. On 24 October 2022, the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance 2022 was published in the Royal Gazette. After 120 days, it will come into force. And the Director General of the Rights and Liberties Protection Department, the Ministry of Justice, shall serve as secretary of the Committee to perform its duties pursuant to this monumental Act.
For more information, please contact:
Phenpiccha Jankomol, Coordinator of the Anti-Labour Trafficking Project, [email protected]