The tsunami-related death toll of Burmese nationals working in neighboring Thailand continues to increase. As yet there is little information forthcoming on the scale of the damage in Burma itself.

Thailand’s Bangkok Post newspaper reported that 800 Burmese workers in southern Thailand are believed to have died due to the tsunami, quoting the Law Society of Thailand’s committee on human rights for stateless and displaced people.

Fifty Burmese died in the port city of Ranong and many more are unaccounted for, claimed the report. More than 100,000 Burmese migrants work in southern Thailand, according to the Law Society of Thailand. The current death estimate for Thailand (including Thai’s, foreign tourists and Burmese workers) is about 2,000. Another 6,000 are still missing. 

Preliminary estimates of the damage toll in Burma itself are that 47 died in Irrawaddy Division, 27 in Tenasserim Division and 12 in Arakan State, according to the Myanmar Red Cross Society. Additionally, an earthquake struck parts of the country the same day. The Myanmar Red Cross estimates that about 1,000 houses were destroyed across the country.

Burmese state-run newspapers initially reported on Tuesday that 36 people died, 45 were injured and 14 were missing. Burmese media also said that 138 buildings were destroyed in Rangoon and Tenasserim, Irrawaddy and Pegu divisions, while 17 coastal villages were destroyed and 788 people made homeless.

UN organizations and NGOs are concerned that the low-lying Coco Islands group might have been hard hit. But Dr Soe Lwin Nyein, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s Disease Control Department, said that the islands weren’t affected much. However, he declined to elaborate.