BANGKOK: Three Rohingya refugees suffocated to death while packed into trucks in Thailand, with two suspected people-smugglers arrested on 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.