Alwaght- Malaysian authorities have found 139 graves – some with multiple bodies – and signs of torture, in more than two dozen squalid human trafficking camps suspected to have been used by gangs smuggling migrants in towns and villages bordering Thailand, the country's police chief said on Monday.
The dense jungles of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia have been a major route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingya Muslims who say they are fleeing persecution, and Bangladesh.
Only a day after reports of the finding of mass graves, national police chief General Khalid Abu Bakar said his officers had uncovered 28 suspected human trafficking camps located around 500 meters from the border in northern Malaysia.
“The operation which we have been conducting from May 11 to May 23 we discovered 139 of what we believe are graves,” Khalid told reporters.
He could not immediately give a figure of how many bodies might have been buried in the sites but the confirmation that there are 139 sites means the number of dead will be much higher than the 100 first suspected.
Khalid added that one grave site was about 100 meters from a mass grave discovered in Thailand earlier this month.
The findings appeared to indicate a system of jungle camps and graves that dwarfs those found by Thai police in early May, a discovery that ignited regional concern about human smuggling and trafficking.
The discovery also follows repeated denials by top Malaysian officials – who have long been accused by rights groups of not doing enough to address the illicit trade –that such sites existed on their soil.
Khalid said the biggest camp that had been discovered in Malaysia could house around 300 people, while another one could take in around 100 people, showing the scale of the human traffickers operation in the area and highlights fears that a high number of bodies will be unearthed.
Khalid said they found at least one highly decomposed body left with just skin and bone. Police believed two to three of the camps were only abandoned as recently as two weeks ago because they found rice, vegetables, recently cooked meals and cooking utensils.
Questioned on why there was no action taken earlier, he said police have been building up intelligence based on 37 arrests of suspected human traffickers – including two policemen – since the start of the year, which led to the grim discovery
The dense jungles of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia have been a major route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingya Muslims who say they are fleeing persecution, and Bangladesh.
Only a day after reports of the finding of mass graves, national police chief General Khalid Abu Bakar said his officers had uncovered 28 suspected human trafficking camps located around 500 meters from the border in northern Malaysia.
“The operation which we have been conducting from May 11 to May 23 we discovered 139 of what we believe are graves,” Khalid told reporters.
He could not immediately give a figure of how many bodies might have been buried in the sites but the confirmation that there are 139 sites means the number of dead will be much higher than the 100 first suspected.
Khalid added that one grave site was about 100 meters from a mass grave discovered in Thailand earlier this month.
The findings appeared to indicate a system of jungle camps and graves that dwarfs those found by Thai police in early May, a discovery that ignited regional concern about human smuggling and trafficking.
The discovery also follows repeated denials by top Malaysian officials – who have long been accused by rights groups of not doing enough to address the illicit trade –that such sites existed on their soil.
Khalid said the biggest camp that had been discovered in Malaysia could house around 300 people, while another one could take in around 100 people, showing the scale of the human traffickers operation in the area and highlights fears that a high number of bodies will be unearthed.
Khalid said they found at least one highly decomposed body left with just skin and bone. Police believed two to three of the camps were only abandoned as recently as two weeks ago because they found rice, vegetables, recently cooked meals and cooking utensils.
Questioned on why there was no action taken earlier, he said police have been building up intelligence based on 37 arrests of suspected human traffickers – including two policemen – since the start of the year, which led to the grim discovery
