3 Rohingya refugees suffocate to death in Thailand

Three Rohingya refugees suffocated to death while packed into trucks in Thailand, with two suspected people-smugglers arrested Friday, police said.

The mainly Muslim Rohingya are heavily persecuted in war-torn western Myanmar, and thousands risk their lives each year to try to reach Malaysia or Indonesia through Thailand.

A passing monk found two dead refugees, along with eight survivors -- seven of them injured -- in a forest in Chumphon province on Thursday, officers said.

One of the injured refugees died on Friday, a hospital staff member told AFP.

The uninjured survivor told police that traffickers had packed 26 people into two vehicles after they had made their way across the Thai-Myanmar border.

"The driver allegedly dumped the Rohingyas there after realising some of them were injured," police said in a statement.

Officers arrested two Thai drivers and confiscated their trucks for further investigation, they said, adding the other 16 Rohingya in the group had escaped.

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fled Myanmar for neighbouring Bangladesh in 2017 during a crackdown by the military that is now the subject of a United Nations genocide court case.

Myanmar's military seized power in a 2021 coup and three years of war since then have displaced millions of people in the country.