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Mass graves of suspected trafficking victims found in Malaysia Mass graves of suspected trafficking victims found in Malaysia
(about 5 hours later)
Mass graves and suspected human trafficking detention camps have been discovered by Malaysian police in towns and villages bordering Thailand, the country’s home minister has said. Multiple mass graves and suspected human trafficking camps have been discovered along Malaysia’s border with Thailand, authorities have said.
Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said officials are determining whether the graves were of human trafficking victims, but did not say how many dead bodies were discovered. “This is still under investigation,” he told reporters at the sidelines of an event in Kuala Lumpur. It is feared that the graves could contain the remains of dozens of Bangladeshi and Burmese Rohingya migrants at the centre of a human trafficking crisis.
According to media reports, the mass graves were believed to contain bodies of hundreds of migrants from Burma and Bangladesh. South-east Asian governments have been scrambling to deal with the thousands of migrants left adrift by smugglers in the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea in recent weeks. More than 3,000 migrants have swum ashore or been rescued off Malaysia and Indonesia this month.
Police discovered 30 large graves containing the remains of hundreds of people in two places in the northern state of Perlis , which borders Thailand, the Utusan Malaysia newspaper reported. Malaysian newspaper reports said about 100 bodies had been discovered at camps in the far north of the country used by gangs to hold refugees and migrants against their will.
The Malaysian Star newspaper reported on its website that nearly 100 bodies were found in one grave on Friday. The home minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said investigators were unsure how many bodies had been found. “I reckon it was a preliminary finding and eventually I think the number would be more than [100],” he told reporters. Other reports said hundreds of bodies were being unearthed by investigators at more than 17 separate camps.
“I reckon it was a preliminary finding and eventually I think the number would be more than that,” Ahmad Zahid said when asked about reports of the number of mass graves discovered. “They have been there for quite some time. I suspect the camps have been operating for at least five years,” Hamidi said, adding that he suspected Malaysian citizens were involved in the trafficking networks. He said more details would be made available at a press conference on Monday.
Ahmad Zahid said that the camps identified are in the areas of Klian Intan and villages near the border. “They have been there for quite some time. I suspect the camps have been operating for at least five years,” he said. The graves are said to be located in the northern state of Perlis, bordering Thailand’s Songkhla province, where weeks ago two Thai teenagers stumbled upon a mass grave at a former traffickers’ camp that once held as many as 800 people.
A police spokeswoman declined to comment, saying a news conference on the issue would be held on Monday. Thai police uncovered 26 bodies at the site, and subsequently cracked down on trafficking networks, which lead traffickers to abandon vessels overloaded with thousands of migrants just as the monsoon season had begun.
A police official who declined to be identified said police commandos and forensic experts from the capital, Kuala Lumpur, were at the site but it was not clear how many graves and bodies had been found. Despite initially refusing to take the boats in, Malaysia and Indonesia have now said they will temporarily accommodate migrants who make their way ashore. Indonesia said on Sunday that four naval ships and a patrol aircraft had begun search and rescue operations at sea, according to AFP.
“Of course I believe that there are Malaysians involved,” Ahmad Zahid said, when asked on possible involvement of locals in the incident. The United Nations and the US have called for action to address the “push factors” behind the crisis – namely Burma’s treatment of the Rohingya Muslim minority. Rohingya are denied citizenship in Burma, which calls them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which also rejects them.
Northern Malaysia is on a route for smugglers bringing people to south-east Asia by boat from Burma, most of them Rohingyas , who say they are fleeing persecution, and people from Bangladesh seeking work. About 140,000 people, mostly Rohingya, were displaced during riots in Burma’s Rakhine state beginning in mid-2012. Restricted aid access and discriminatory policies against the group have since led to large-scale maritime migration toward the relative prosperity of Malaysia.
Smugglers have also used southern Thailand and Utusan Malaysia and police believe the discovery had a connection to mass graves found on the Thai side of the border this month. Until recently human traffickers in multiple countries were smuggling Rohingya, as well as poor Bangladeshis, in a process apparently refined to extort the maximum profit. During the dry season from October to May, boatmen in Rakhine state would take Rohingya out to large vessels waiting at sea, according to local accounts. When a boat’s hull was packed with human cargo, it would depart southward to Thailand or Malaysia.
Twenty-six bodies were exhumed from a grave in Thailand’s Songkhla province, over the border from Perlis, near a camp with suspected links to human trafficking. On arrival, migrants were handed to other traffickers operating makeshift prison camps in the jungle, where they were subjected to brutal treatment until their families back home paid a ransom, usually 6,000 Malaysian Ringgits (£1,070), according to families of trafficked people. Those whose families could not pay may be among those now turning up in shallow graves.
More than 3,000 migrants, most of them from Burma and Bangladesh, have landed on boats in Malaysia and Indonesia this month after a crackdown on trafficking in Thailand. Despite the recent flurry of government action – Burma has also announced search and rescue efforts for boats floating off its coast – regional officials have been criticised for allowing trafficking networks to operate for years unchecked.
On Thursday, the Malaysian prime minister, Najib Razak pledged assistance and ordered the navy to rescue thousands adrift at sea. “These jungle camps, and the brutality inflicted on people held there, were hardly a secret on either side of the border. The only way these kinds of camps could operate was with the support of military, police and politicians who were either directly involved or were paid to look the other way,” said Phil Robertson, deputy director of Human Rights Watch’s Asia division.
“This was buffet feast of corruption at which so many people had a seat at the table, but so far only the local, lower-ranking persons have been arrested, and the major patrons who were at the head of the table are still free.
“Leaders in both Malaysia and Thailand need to demonstrate the political will to act and hold accountable all those involved, regardless of rank or status, or this horrific trade may resurface once the media limelight moves somewhere else.”
The Bangladeshi prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, criticised the country’s economic migrants on Sunday, accusing them of hurting its image.
“There is sufficient work for them, still they are leaving the country in such disastrous ways,” Hasina was quoted as saying by the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha news agency – her first comments on the migrant crisis.
Calling the boat people “mentally sick” for fleeing in search of jobs, the premier said they “could have better lives in Bangladesh”.
“They are tainting Bangladesh’s image in the international arena,” she added.
Hasina called on authorities to halt the flow of migrants and take action against human traffickers. “Along with brokers [of trafficking], punishment will have to be given to those who are moving out of the country illegally,” she was quoted as saying.
“You will have to conduct … campaigns so migrants do not give money to brokers for going abroad in illegal ways. They are falling into a trap,” she reportedly told senior labour and employment ministry officials.