Thai tsunami IDs 'may take years'

The Victim Identification Centre received more than 3,700 bodies

It could take three years to identify everyone killed in Thailand during the tsunami, Thai officials have said.

The head of the victim identification centre, Noppadol Somboonsub, said 1,600 bodies still needed to be identified.

He said the process might take longer than originally expected, because many victims were illegal immigrants, whose families were afraid to come forward.

More than 220,000 people were killed during last December's tsunami, 5,500 of them in Thailand.

'Hard burden'

Mr Noppadol - head of the Thailand Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) centre - said the process was getting more and more difficult as time went on.

"It is a hard burden for us because it will not be finished in one year. It will take another two to three years," he told reporters on Monday.

So far Thai experts, working with forensic teams from across the world, have identified 2,165 bodies from more than 3,700 received at the Phuket-based centre since the disaster occurred on 26 December.

The identification procedure relies heavily on DNA data, fingerprints and dental records, which are matched to the bodies at the centre.

Fear factor

But many of those left unidentified are believed to be the remains of undocumented Cambodian and Burmese workers, who were working in Thailand illegally.

"We have information that some families who are still staying in Thailand might not have the legal documents, so they are afraid to come forward," Mr Noppadol is quoted as saying by the French news agency AFP.

He said the Thai police had been liaising with the International Organisation for Migration to help in the identification process.

For the first anniversary of the tsunami, the Thai authorities said on Monday that they would organise memorial services in Phuket, Khao Lak and Krabi - the three worst hit areas.

Precise details of these commemorative events are not yet available.