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Action in Hong Kong  

Background:

On the evening of 9th April 2008 in Southern Thailand, 54 migrant workers from Burma suffocated in a 6m x 2.2m refrigerated truck routinely used for carrying frozen seafood. These workers were being smuggled to the resort island of Phuket. Of the dead, 37 were female (including one eight-year-old girl) and 17 were male (including one boy). An additional 67 workers (14 of them under 18 years old and one pregnant woman) survived the incident. The 14 child survivors were separated from the adult survivors and have been kept in immigration detention in Ranong. All 53 adult survivors were sentenced by a local court for illegal entry and to a 2,000 baht (US$63) fine. As all but 4 of the adult survivors were unable to pay this fine, they were sentenced to imprisonment for 10 days. Now these 10 days have passed, the adult survivors, alongside the child survivors, are being kept in an immigration jail and have limited access to lawyers and other non-governmental assistance. The location of the 4 adult survivors who paid the court imposed fine is not known. Future arrangements for all other survivors, both adults and children, are also currently unclear.

International Workers Memorial Day: Remember the Dead - Fight For The Living - 28th April every year - The Global Union Campaign Day for Safer, Healthier, better work !

History

28 April became an international commemoration day in 1996 at the United Nations in New York when a Global Union delegation lit a Commemoration Candle to highlight the plight of workers who die, are injured or become ill each year due to unsustainable forms of work and production. Since then, the number of commemoration events known as Workers Memorial Day in the UK has grown, and they now take place in nearly 120 countries. These include a wide range of activities, from large rallies and sectoral mobilisations to educational and lobbying events, including basic information dissemination. In addition, many unions take the opportunity on 28 April to publicise the results of such actions as workplace assessments and surveys, as well as to announce initiatives they intend to pursue.


International Commemoration Day for Dead and Injured Workers”. 28 April is now formally recognised nationally by governments in 14 countries or territories: Argentina, Belgium, Bermuda, Brazil, Canada, Dominican Republic, Greece, Luxembourg, Panama, Peru, Panama, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Taiwan.