Mass 'migrant prison camp' grave found in Thailand

[Carlosa]

Mass 'migrant prison camp' grave found in Thailand
Mass 'migrant prison camp' grave found in Thailand - Yahoo News

Bangkok (AFP) - Authorities in Thailand uncovered a mass grave in an abandoned jungle camp Friday believed to contain the remains of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, a grisly find in a region notorious for people-smuggling routes.

The discovery was made at a remote camp in Sadao district, in Songkhla province bordering Malaysia, and comes as Thailand's junta cracks down on human trafficking following accusations that officials have been complicit in the trade.

The border area with Malaysia is notorious for its network of secret camps where smuggled migrants are held, usually against their will until relatives pay up hefty ransoms.

"There are 32 graves, four bodies have now been exhumed and are on their way... to hospital for an autopsy," Sathit Thamsuwan, a rescue worker who was at the scene soon after the site was found, told AFP, saying it was unclear how they had died.

"The bodies were all decayed," he said, adding a single emaciated man from Bangladesh survived and was being treated at a hospital in nearby Padang Besar.

National police chief General Somyot Poompanmoung described the site as a virtual "prison camp" where migrants were held in makeshift bamboo cells.

He said the smugglers were believed to have abandoned the sick man when they moved Rohingya migrants across the border into Malaysia two days ago.

Local media said the camp and its lone survivor were stumbled upon by villagers looking for mushrooms.

The hospital confirmed the Bangladeshi man had survived and said he was in a stable condition.

A senior official from Sadao said exhumations had now stopped pending the arrival of forensic teams.

Tens of thousands of migrants from Myanmar, mainly from the Rohingya Muslim minority but also increasingly from Bangladesh, make the dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a well-worn trafficking route often on the way south to Malaysia and beyond.

Thousands of Rohingya -- described by the UN as one of the world's most persecuted minorities -- have fled deadly communal unrest in western Myanmar's Rakhine state since 2012.

Chris Lewa, from the Arakan Project which monitors the smuggling routes, said survivors of the jungle camps often described horrific conditions as they waited for relatives to pay ransoms.

"If police find a camp and start digging you can bet they will find graves," she told AFP.

Thailand has been criticised in the past for pushing boatloads of Rohingya entering Thai waters back out to sea, and for holding migrants in overcrowded facilities.

The ruling junta says it has taken significant steps to combat trafficking since June, when the United States dumped Thailand to the bottom of its list of countries accused of failing to tackle modern-day slavery.

In January, Thai authorities confirmed more than a dozen government officials -- including senior policemen and a navy officer -- were being prosecuted for involvement or complicity in human trafficking.

Lewa said the junta's crackdown had forced many Thai smugglers into hiding, reducing the numbers held in jungle camps in recent months.

"We fear there may be thousands stuck at sea because they can't disembark. The camps have effectively been transferred from the jungle to international waters," she said.

Two weeks ago she interviewed a 15-year-old boy who had made it to Malaysia.

Rather than hold him in a Thai jungle camp, he was kept for six weeks on a boat, awaiting payment from his relatives.

"During his time at sea he said he saw at least 30 people die. They were thrown overboard," she said.

 

[Kolaps]

Thailand government should pay this!!!

By providing thousands of ships, to transport all Myanmar's Bangladeshi to Dubai and Kuala Lumpur. All of it!

 

[somsak]

Don't judge things so quickly before the whole truth is clear

 

[Reashot Xigwin]

Sry if I offend your religious belief with this.

 

[Carlosa]

Don't judge things so quickly before the whole truth is clear

Man, I used to tell you about this over a year ago (the slave workers in the Thai fishing vessels) and you didn't want to believe and you used to say that you never heard of this even that it has been in the English press for a few years including the English press in Thailand (Bangkok post / The Nation). A foreign journalist in Thailand was even sued by the Thai Navy because he published an story about this implicating the Royal Thai Navy. Remember?

Now the stuff is coming out. Thousands of Burmese slaves have actually been murdered in the Thai fishing industry, one of the dark secrets of Thailand. Time to face up. Can't ignore it anymore. Thai people need to wake up! Malaysia too.

Thailand government should pay this!!!

Yes because actually, all this happened because of the complicity of the Thai royal navy, the Thai immigration service and the Thai police. When Thai immigration and also the Navy, detain immigrants, they soell them as slave labor to the Thai fishing boats.

The way it works its like this: The Thai Navy or Thai immigration detains illegal immigrants, they sell them to the traffickers, the traffickers take them to secret camps like the one where the mass graves were found until they sell them to the Thai fishing boats.

 

[Carlosa]

Detention camp horrors grow

Rescue workers worked through the weekend to recover the 26 hastily buried remains from the Songkhla death camp, and provide coffins for burial. (Photos by Pornprom Satrabhaya)

Thousands of Rohingya people who are possibly victims of human trafficking are being kept in at least 60 detention camps scattered throughout mountains along the Thai-Malaysian border, says a former president of the Rohingya Association of Thailand.

"The discovery of the detention camp [last Friday at Ban Taloh in tambon Padang Besar of Songkhla's Sadao district] is just the tip of the iceberg. Currently there are at least 60 detention camps along the Thai-Malaysian border," Abdul Kalam told the Bangkok Post Sunday, adding that about 150-800 refugees are being held in each camp.

Most of the camps are situated on the Malaysian side, he said.

• Pol Gen Chakthip Chaichinda, deputy national police chief, assigned by national police chief Pol Gen Somyot Pumpunmuang to lead a human trafficking investigation in the South, said he will meet investigators in Hat Yai district of Songkhla today to verify the number of camps in the area.

"According to the information I have obtained there are many detention camps along the Thai-Malaysian border," Pol Gen Chakthip said.

Lt-Gen Prakarn Chonlayuth, commander of the 4th Army Region, said he will ask Malaysia to conduct more patrols along the border to suppress human trafficking.

Deputy government spokesman Sansern Kaewkamnerd said Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha may consider using Section 44 of the interim charter to deal with human trafficking.

Gen Prayut ordered Deputy Defence Minister and army chief Udomdej Sitabutr to travel to Songkhla today to oversee progress in police investigations.

Meanwhile, Mr Kalam attended the burial ceremony of 20 of the 26 bodies recovered from graves in tambon Padang Besar of Songkhla's Sadao district.

The burial was held at a Muslim cemetery in Hat Yai district.

The bodies of the others are being kept at Songklanagarind Hospital in Hat Yai district for autopsies.

Mr Kalam said he knew of the detention camps from two Rohingya compatriots, whom he helped to escape from a human trafficking network after they fled a detention camp last month.

The men, aged 23 and 30, were lured into a human trafficking network from their homes in Myanmar's Rakhine state.

When they arrived in Thailand a few years ago, they were brought to a detention camp in tambon Padang Besar of Songkhla's Sadao district.

The men said that they were beaten by members of a human trafficking network and forced to work under slave conditions while waiting for ransom money to come in from their relatives in Myanmar.

The governments of Thailand and Malaysia need to work together to solve the problem and take legal action against all those involved, regardless of whether they are state officials or civilians, Mr Kalam said.

He played a recording of the voice of 28-year-old Tunusar, a survivor of a death camp for human trafficking victims in the jungle in Songkhla.

He interviewed Mr Tunusar, who was bed-ridden at Padang Besar hospital in Sadao district, on Saturday.

Mr Tunusar was held captive at the camp for nine months after being kidnapped from his hometown in Bangladesh and brought by boat to a jungle camp in Thailand.

"I saw at least 40 people die while I was staying at the camp. Ten were Bangladeshis and the others were from Myanmar or Rohingya. They died because of malnutrition, starvation or being beaten to death," Mr Tunusar said on the clip.

"I want to go home to Bangladesh," he said.

The brokers controlling the camp were men named Hayi, Amartali, Arnua, Saw Lim, Rana and Heidra, he said. He was beaten many times after the brokers called his mother in Bangladesh and learned she didn't have the money to pay his ransom.

Another Rohingya man who was previously jailed at the camp, who wishes not to be named, recounted the horrors he saw to police Sunday.

He said a Rohingya man named Kasim was killed by Mr Arnua, a well-known Rohingya trafficking broker, at the camp.

Mr Arnua used a heavy stick to beat Kasim, the nephew of a Rohingya man named Kuramia, to death.

Nakhon Si Thammarat police said Mr Arnua had abducted Kasim and demanded a 95,000-baht ransom, but the nephew was not freed after the money was sent.

Mr Arnua then demanded another 120,000 baht, prompting Mr Kuramia to go to the police, which prompted Mr Arnua to kill the nephew, they said.

Police arrested Mr Arnua in Muang district on Wednesday and charged him with fraud and kidnapping. They are gathering evidence to prosecute him for human trafficking.

Mr Kuramia had feared his nephew was killed and buried in tambon Padang Besar in Songkhla's Sadao district, which led to the police's discovery of the graves on Friday, police said.

The witness also told reporters that his mother in Myanmar paid ransom money of 6,000 Malaysian ringgit (55,250 baht) to free him from the camp prior to its discovery by authorities.

While in the camp, the witness heard news of more than 500 deaths in similar camps along the Thai-Malaysian border.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Graves have shamed us
4 May 2015 at 03:30
Bangkok Post editorial

The discovery of the mass grave of what are probably trafficked victims on our shores needs to be followed by the most swift and decisive action possible. Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha and the highest-ranking police officers have promised to tackle the scourge of modern-day slavery — this sad and tragic incident gives them the chance back up their words.

A Songkhla field, reportedly used by traffickers to hold illegal immigrants, is now a grim death camp. The discovery of more than 30 graves there has echoed around the world, focusing attention on Thai authorities to hunt down those at the very top of this vile business.

Past governments have talked quite a game on human trafficking. Yet in the past decade no human trafficking gangs have been nailed and no notable officials arrested. Meanwhile, the number of trafficked persons has grown considerably.

At the same time, Thailand's global image has progressively deteriorated. Last year it hit rock bottom in the annual US report on human trafficking. Alongside this is the prospect of a severe economic backlash over trafficking: The European Union has issued us with a "yellow card", obligating Thailand to clean up the abominable violations in the seafood industry, one of the country's biggest export earners.

The Prayut government has acted to remedy past inequities. It has launched foreign labour registration, changed outdated laws and increased penalties, streamlined legal procedures and declared the fight against human trafficking a national priority, promising to penalise all those involved.

The time for promises ran out on Friday. No one within or outside Thailand will give any credence to claims by the government, military or police that they are on the verge of closing down human traffickers.

When the graves in Songkhla's Sadao district were revealed, it was telling that senior police officers, including national chief Somyot Pumpunmuang, claimed they were aware the area was being used by human traffickers. If Pol Gen Somyot or any of his subordinates had acted on that information, they could have saved lives and struck a blow against trafficking.

If the Bangkok-based chief of police knew about the Sadao trafficking camps, clearly so did many others. By inference, human trafficking gangs are working with the knowledge, if not direct connivance, of important figures. The stark choice facing Pol Gen Somyot and Prime Minister Prayut is: They must move quickly to smash the human trafficking rings and reel in the "influential figures". The risk to them otherwise is massive criticism and loss of credibility.

The involvement of officials has long caused public unease. Newspapers, TV, internet forums and movies are not shy to broach the subject. It is no longer shocking that officials with strong connections to Bangkok power rings are involved. What is shocking is that the government, the military and the police refuse to act.

The killing fields of Sadao must be investigated and those responsible charged. For nearly a year, the military regime has promised action against trafficking. Yet repeatedly the country is being shamed — by the US ranking, the EU yellow card, NGO reports and even domestic cinema such as the recent movie Ameen. Its time is up.

The Songkhla graves are a turning point. This government must bring justice to the dead of Sadao or face unmitigated shame at home and abroad.

 

[Carlosa]

Second suspected human trafficking camp found in Thai south

By Amy Sawitta Lefevre

BANGKOK (Reuters) - A second suspected human trafficking camp has been discovered in southern Thailand, police said on Tuesday, following a search by authorities of a mountain where 26 bodies were found in shallow graves at the weekend.

The 26 bodies are believed to be illegal migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh and were found at a suspected human trafficking camp hidden deep in the jungle in Thailand's southern Songkhla province near the Malaysian border.

Illegal migrants, many of them Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar and from Bangladesh, brave often perilous journeys by sea to escape religious and ethnic persecution. Every year, thousands arrive in Thailand, brought by smugglers. Many are taken by road to camps in the jungle, where traffickers demand a ransom to smuggle them south across the border to Malaysia.

On Monday, Thai police announced charges including human trafficking and holding people for ransom against a Rohingya man and three local government administrators. They said another four Thais were being sought.

Police Colonel Triwit Sriprapa, deputy commander of Songkhla Provincial Police, told Reuters on Tuesday a second camp had been found on the same mountain. It housed eight bamboo shelters, including three sleeping tents, two makeshift kitchens and a rudimentary toilet,

No graves have been found at the second camp so far.

Authorities found three people near the camp on Monday looking malnourished and exhausted, he said, adding that the camp looked like it had recently been abandoned.

"Looking at the state of the camp it was probably evacuated recently and looking at some of the wood cut in the camp it was probably cut in the last seven days," Triwit said by telephone.

"We think this camp probably moved from a different location once the traffickers were tipped off that authorities were searching for more camps on this mountain range."

Thailand, a regional hub for human trafficking, is under pressure from the United States and European Union to stamp out human smuggling, trafficking and slavery.

Last June, the U.S. State Department downgraded Thailand to its lowest rank in a survey of countries' efforts to eliminate human trafficking, placing it alongside states such as North Korea, Syria and Uzbekistan.

A bottom-tier ranking exposes Thailand, a key U.S. ally in Southeast Asia, to the possibility of sanctions in addition to those imposed since a military coup in the country last year, although these steps have so far been largely symbolic.

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

 

[somsak]

These camps are created by human traffickers. We are solving the trafficking problem. We are hubs of mainland southeast Asia. Everything is passing through Thai territory. Be it VN boat people, Cambodian refugees, Myanmar ethnic conflict, etc. It has been like this since ancient time. We still hosting descendants of Christian Vietnamese fred from persecution in Vietnam 150years ago, Chinese fred from war and poverty 100 years ago, VN king Gia Long' s followers descendant, Hmong from Lao, etc. etc.

 

[Carlosa]

These camps are created by human traffickers. We are solving the trafficking problem. We are hubs of mainland southeast Asia. Everything is passing through Thai territory. Be it VN boat people, Cambodian refugees, Myanmar ethnic conflict, etc. It has been like this since ancient time. We still hosting descendants of Christian Vietnamese fred from persecution in Vietnam 150years ago, Chinese fred from war and poverty 100 years ago, VN king Gia Long' s followers descendant, Hmong from Lao, etc. etc.

I understand you, but its not as simple as that, these people are mainly getting sold to the Thai fishing industry as slave labor and there is no action on that yet.

At least its a bit encouraging that some government officials and Thai policemen have been arrested or "transferred" but we'll have to see if the ones at the top get arrested, I seriously doubt that.

 

[Aepsilons]

@Carlosa

There are over 100,000 Shan refugees on the territory of Chiang Mai Province in the north of Thailand, in the south of Thailand specifically in Songkhla , which is bordering the Andaman Sea, and close to Bangladesh as well as Burma.

The issue of bribing security forces is also a barrier to stopping human trafficking....there in Thailand....

 

[Carlosa]

Over 50 Thai police punished over links to human trafficking
By Aukkarapon Niyomyat

BANGKOK (Reuters) - More than 50 Thai police officers have been punished over suspected links to human trafficking networks, the country's police chief said on Thursday, after the prime minister ordered a probe into the discovery of trafficking camps near the Malaysian border.

Thirty-two bodies, believed to be migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, have been found in shallow graves over the past week in the southern province of Songkhla. Some of the bodies were found at a suspected human trafficking camp hidden deep in the jungle.

"We have transferred over 50 police officers over this issue because commanders in local areas know who has been involved in what," Chief of Royal Thai Police General Somyot Poompanmuang told reporters ahead of a meeting in Bangkok to discuss efforts to crack down on the illicit trade.

"In the past there were no sincere efforts to solve this problem. This is only something that has happened recently."
Some Thai officials say human trafficking has been allowed to flourish for years amid indifference and, sometimes, complicity by Thai authorities.

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has ordered a clean up of suspected human trafficking camps around the country within 10 days, while U.N. officials have called for a regional effort to end the illicit trade.

Thailand was not to blame for the crisis, said Prayuth.
"This problem comes from abroad and not from us. To solve it we must look to the source because we are merely a transit country," he said. (Carlosa notes: yeah sure, most of these people are trafficked in order to sell them to the Thai fishing boats, but that's not Thailand's responsibility according to Generalisimo Mr. Prayuth)

Thousands of illegal migrants, including Rohinghya Muslims from western Myanmar and from Bangladesh, brave dangerous journeys by sea and land to escape religious and ethnic persecution and in search of work abroad.

They are often trafficked through Thailand, a predominantly Buddhist country, and taken into the country's jungles, where traffickers demand ransoms to release them or smuggle them across the border to mainly Muslim Malaysia.

Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch told Reuters that the latest crackdown was the "first effort by the Thai government to leave no stone unturned" and called for an investigation of military personnel suspected of involvement in human trafficking.

"We see local politicians and police being investigated and named but what about military personnel? What about officials from forestry departments which have long been alleged to have provided support to human traffickers?"

Thai police have arrested four men - three Thais and a Myanmar national - on suspicion of human trafficking. Arrest warrants have been issued for a further 14 people, police said on Thursday.

(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak in BANGKOK and Surapan Boonthanom in PADANG BESAR; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

 

[Carlosa]

Seafood from slavery: Can Thailand tackle the crisis in its fishing industry?

(CNN)The hours would be long and the work hard, but spending a year as a fisherman seemed like a good option to Samart Senasook.

(CNN)The hours would be long and the work hard, but spending a year as a fisherman seemed like a good option to Samart Senasook.

Previous jobs as a security guard in Bangkok had been sporadic, so when a man known as Vee promised the 40-year old decent wages on a fishing boat he decided to take the chance.

Vee turned out to be a broker, a link in the chain of human trafficking that supplies the Thai fishing industry with thousands of migrant workers and turns many of them into virtual slaves.

Instead of a year on board a Thai fishing vessel, Senasook said he spent six, and was made to work 20-hour days in life-threatening conditions.

His unwanted odyssey only came to an end last month, thousands of miles from Thailand, on the eastern Indonesian island of Ambon.

The boat he was on was impounded by Indonesian authorities for suspected illegal fishing, with Senasook and his crewmates held in custody.

Six years a slave

Looking back on his ordeal, that he says lasted from January 2009 to March 2015, Senasook rarely saw land, as the boat he was on roamed further and further from Thai waters in search of increasingly scarce fish.

Its catch was part of Thailand's multi-billion dollar seafood industry that feeds tens of millions in Europe and the United States.

Senasook describes his life on board as one full of intimidation, sleep deprivation and regular beatings from the boat's captain.

"(The captain) kicked and punched me," he said. "My nose and mouth were bleeding. I still have blood clotted in my teeth. My jaw hurts every time I chew."

With no way to escape, he became suicidal.

"I was thinking of my family, my mother. There were times, I was about to jump into the sea to kill myself.

"My friend from the engine room held me back. Otherwise I would have been dead by now," he said.

Senasook says the boat's captain kept his and the crew's ID at all times, essentially holding them captive.

Fishermen board a Thai military plane in Ambon, Indonesia on April 9 during their repatriation.

When Senasook did finally get his hands on his identity card on Ambon, he was horrified to see it was in a false name. He had gone from being captive on board a fishing boat to being stranded on a distant island.

"There are many of my friends die in Indonesia. And their graves were with wrong names," said Senasook. "Like, if I died, at my grave it would not bear my name but it would be someone else."

In desperation, he wrote an open letter to the Thai Prime Minister asking for help. That helped to release him from Indonesian custody, but, isolated and penniless, he could not make his way home to Thailand.

He received a final payment of 1,750 baht ($53) from his ship's captain, but was then told he needed to pay 20,000 baht ($615) for the agent fee that brought him on the boat in 2009.

The size of the problem: unknown

Eventually he received assistance from Thai-based Labor Rights Promotion Network (LPN) and was repatriated to Thailand last month.

He was one of the more fortunate ones. The LPN discovered a similar situation on the nearby island of Benjina, where the group says hundreds of other fishermen from across Southeast Asia were trapped and living in desperate conditions.

Raks Thai Foundation suggests there are in excess of 200,000 trafficked, unregistered workers.

Migrant workers on a fishing boat in Thailand's southern Phang Nga province.
The exact number of fishing vessels is also unknown -- official figures put them at around 57,000 -- because registration is lax. The real number could be double that.

International attention, government response

The issue of slavery and rights abuses in the Thai fishing industry has become acute in recent years. As the global demand for seafood has increased, the Thai economy improved, so attracting workers to dangerous jobs on fishing boats has become more difficult.

Last year the U.S. State Department downgraded Thailand to the lowest tier on its Trafficking in Persons Report 2014, which can result in the withdrawal of international aid.

Last month the European Union called Thailand a "non-cooperating" country because of poor monitoring and control of its fishing vessels and the trade of fish and seafood from other countries into Thailand.

Unless it cracks down on the situation, Thailand faces a financially damaging embargo on its fish exports to the EU from October.

In response, Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has declared combating human trafficking a national priority.

In a statement in March, he called on all government agencies to "clean up their houses." Traffickers and government officials that have colluded with them "no longer have any room to exist in Thai society," he said.

According to Thailand's Department of Fisheries, new control measures are being implemented.

As well as inspections of fishing vessels, boats more than 30 tons in size that travel outside of Thai waters will have to be equipped with an electronic vessel monitoring system (VMS). Without it, the boats will not be given a fishing license. However, only around 6,000 boats in the Thai fishing fleet are of this size, according to the Marine Department.

Another new government initiative that came into play in April requires each fishing vessel to list who is on board, who it is licensed to, the name of its owner, and where it will operate before it leaves port and once it returns.

These "port-out, port-in" measures "will help enable us to reduce the risk of human trafficking, reduce the risk of force labor," said Warapon Prompol, deputy director-general, Department of Fisheries.

Crew manifests were not previously required.

"For the Marine Department we can check only a certain type of vessel, a certain size, too. But now the government is trying to reduce the size (of the vessel) that allows that we can check them," said Chula Sukmanop, director-general to the Marine Department.

He added that enforcement is made more difficult because all too often ships will change crew once they leave port.

Lack of enforcement, lack of clarity

While laws against human trafficking exist in the country -- a new Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act was approved as recently as March -- it has often been this lack of enforcement that has allowed exploitation of fishermen to continue.

"There have been laws that should penalize employers with penalties and not just the migrants themselves, but they've been rarely enforced in the past," said Max Tunon, senior program manager for the International Labour Organization, who specializes in migrant workers' rights in Southeast Asia.

Exports by Thai seafood companies to the United States and Europe are worth around $2.5 billion annually, withThai Union Frozen Products (TUF) one of the largest -- and owner of the John West and Chicken of the Sea brands.

In a statement in March, Khun Thiraphong Chansiri, TUF's president and CEO, called human trafficking in its supply chain "utterly unacceptable," but said "we all have to admit that it is difficult to ensure the Thai seafood industry's supply chain is 100% clean."

Progress to combat the problems of trafficked workers and slave labor has been made thanks to market and trade pressure, said Tunon. But it's still hard to see real change on the ground.

"It's been a challenge for years and it will be hard to measure progress because there has not been much of a baseline from which to gather credible information on the problem," said Tunon.

"The attention is now on the fishing industry, as it's particularly vulnerable, but this could help better protection for migrant workers in sections that don't have consumer or trade pressure, that aren't so visible because they don't feed into the global supply chain."

 

[BoQ77]

The ugly truth. I'm so upset to hear about that.

 

[Carlosa]

Rohingya migrants raped at Thai-Malaysia border camps: report

Rohingya migrants raped at Thai-Malaysia border camps: report - Yahoo News

Kuala Lumpur (AFP) - Muslim Rohingya women who were held at human-trafficking camps in Thailand and Malaysia were subjected to gang rapes by their captors, assaults that left at least two of them pregnant, a Malaysian media report said.

Related Stories

1. Malaysia finds 139 graves in 'cruel' jungle trafficking camps Reuters
2. Malaysia finds 139 grave sites in migrant trafficking camps AFP
3. Mass graves of suspected migrants found in Malaysia AFP
4. No human trafficking camps left in Thai south, police say Reuters
5. Malaysia Finds Mass Graves In Migrant Trafficking Camps Huffington Post

Malaysia's state-run Bernama news agency quoted a Rohingya survivor of the camps, Nur Khaidha Abdul Shukur, as saying young women would be taken away nightly from the jungle post where she was held near Padang Besar in Thailand.

She passed through the camp last year, according to the report released late Monday.

"Every night, two or three young and pretty Rohingya women were taken out from the detention pens by the guards to a clandestine place," she was quoted saying.

"They would be gang raped by the guards. Two young women at the camp became pregnant after the gang rape."

The report also quoted her husband Nurul Amin Nobi Hussein saying he witnessed similar crimes taking place at nearby camps on the Malaysian side of the border.


An abandoned migrant detention camp used by people-smugglers is seen in a jungle near the Malaysia-T …

The discovery last month of human-trafficking camps -- and scores of nearby graves -- first in Thailand and then over the border in Malaysia has caused shock and revulsion in Southeast Asia.

Seven camps were uncovered in Thailand beginning in early May and 33 bodies found in mass graves.

In late May, Malaysian police announced they had found 28 camps on their side of the border and 139 graves, which are still being exhumed.

The camps are believed to have been used by people-smuggling syndicates who move large numbers of impoverished Rohingya out of Myanmar, where they face systematic repression, with most heading for Malaysia.

Speaking from the northern Malaysian town of Alor Setarm, Nur Khaidha told Bernama that she entered the country illegally late last year after paying the smugglers to release her from the camp.

Rohingya migrants from Myanmar gather at a confinement area in Bayeun, on Indonesia's northern S …
She said women sometimes were taken away by guards for several days to be used as sex slaves.

Her husband, who said he transited the Malaysian camps earlier in 2014, told Bernama the same occurred there.

"In the night, several of the guards would go to the pens housing the women and take them to a nearby place," he said.

"We heard the shrieks and cries of the women because the place they raped them was very close to our pens, but as the incidents were at night, we could not see what was happening."

AFP was not immediately able to confirm the claims with authorities.

Thai police have arrested nearly 50 people, including some local officials, since launching a crackdown in early May.

Malaysia has said 12 of its police officers are among those being investigated for possible involvement in the camps on its side.

The Thai crackdown threw the human flow into disarray, causing a humanitarian crisis by trapping thousands of starving migrants on boats at sea.

US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Richard, who is on a tour through the region to address the migrant issue, told reporters late Monday that she had met some women boat people now in Malaysia and many had endured harrowing experiences.

"It was very clear to me... they had gone through terrible, terrible experiences. They are not in good shape," she said.

 

[Carlosa]

Thai court charges army officer over Rohingya trafficking
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-32970764

Lt Gen Kongpan is reported to have said that he is willing to co-operate with police
A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for a senior army officer accused of being involved in the trafficking of Rohingya migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

Lieutenant General Manas Kongpan could face a criminal trial. He is willing to hand himself in, Thai reports say.

The warrant is part of efforts to close down smuggling routes through Thailand.

Meanwhile Myanmar's navy is reported to be escorting a boat with about 700 stranded migrants to a "safe" location.

Information Minister Ye Htut told the AFP news agency that the migrants were being taken to an undisclosed but safe area and had been given food and water.

He declined naming the location because of "security and safety concerns".

'Complicit in trafficking'
Tuesday's move to arrest Gen Kongpan is part of an effort by Thailand to close down a human smuggling route through the country.

The Thai navy has in recent months rescued scores of Rohingya migrants

The bodies of migrants were last month exhumed from a jungle camp in Thailand's southern Songkhla province

Thousands of Rohingyas are believed to be stranded at sea
Migrants from Myanmar (Burma) and Bangladesh have previously been detained in camps in southern Thailand before being sent to Malaysia.

In 2009, the general told the BBC that Thailand treated migrants humanely after he was accused of ordering more than 1,000 Rohingyas to be set adrift at sea on boats with no engines.

Correspondents say that he is the first member of the military in army-ruled Thailand to be implicated in the trafficking of migrants.

Rights groups have long maintained that the country has not addressed the issue and may even be complicit in the trade.

The warrant against the general was issued by a court on Sunday, police chief Somyot Poompanmoung was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

"[We] are confident in the evidence [and] I am confident he will not flee."

The Thai News Agency on Tuesday interviewed Gen Kongpan, who said he was going to surrender himself to the police in Songkhla province. He said he was willing to co-operate with officers and was preparing to defend himself.

Police have not given details over his alleged role in the multi-million dollar criminal network which authorities believe over the years has been responsible for smuggling migrants through the south of Thailand to Malaysia.

Gen Kongpan, 58, was a senior army officer in the south, where police are examining dozens of shallow graves found last month in a remote migrant camp bordering Malaysia.

Thousands of Rohingyas have in recent months attempted to travel to Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia and many are still believed to be stranded at sea.