Southern Thailand
Second Human Trafficking Camp Found in Songkhla Province
Security forces at an abandoned jungle camp where the bodies of 26 migrants were found
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SONGKHLA – Investigators in Songkhla Province have discovered five graves at a second remote jungle camp which may contain the remains of more migrants, national police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters
The site was uncovered just a kilometer from a similar encampment on a steep hillside near the Malaysian border, where forensic teams found 26 bodies over the weekend — all but one buried in shallow graves.
A forensic police officer collects items left at an abandoned migrant camp on Khao Kaew Mountain
“We found the second camp yesterday evening, we also found five graves but cannot yet confirm whether any bodies are in them. Authorities will look into this.” Prawut Thavornsiri told reporters.
He said the second camp was 25 kms west of Padang Besar in Songkhla province.
Authorities found three people near the second camp on Monday looking malnourished and exhausted, police colonel Triwit Sriprapa said, adding that the camp looked like it had recently been abandoned.
“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,” he said.
Mr Prawut said five officials from Padang Besar have now been arrested on human trafficking charges since the first camp was discovered, including a suspect who turned himself in on Tuesday morning.
Two other local officials are on the run, he added.
“We are looking [at] whether they are in or outside Thailand,” he said.
The second camp yesterday evening
A separate police statement issued on Tuesday said 15 law enforcement officers in southern Thailand had been transferred from their positions, including a senior officer in Padang Besar and another in Satun on Thailand’s south-west coast.
The bodies found in the first camp were thought to be migrants who had come from Myanmar or Bangladesh.
The grim discovery has vividly illustrated the enormous dangers faced by desperate migrants trying to flee persecution or poverty.
Each year tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladesh make the dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a well-worn trafficking route.
They are often headed south to Malaysia and beyond.
But Thailand’s southern border region contains a network of secret camps where smuggled migrants are held, usually against their will, until relatives pay hefty ransoms.
Rights groups have long accused the Thai authorities of turning a blind eye to — and even being complicit in — human trafficking.
Stung by that notorious reputation, Thailand’s military government has launched a crackdown in recent months, arresting scores of officials.
The recent crackdown — sparked by the arrest of an alleged major migrant kingpin known as Anwar — has forced smugglers to switch tactics, emptying camps but leaving the weak behind to fend for themselves.
Two adults suffering from malnutrition and scabies were discovered at the first camp and taken to hospital. A fresh corpse was also out in the open.
During a visit to the region on Saturday, news agency AFP also came across two teenage migrant boys who had been apprehended by police.
They said they had fled the first camp when the authorities raided it on Friday, for another one nearby — fuelling suspicions that camps are still operating in the region.
The exodus of Rohingya — described by the United Nations as one of the world’s most persecuted minorities — followed deadly communal unrest which broke out in western Myanmar’s Rakhine state in 2012.
Rohingya living in Bangladesh have also been trafficked to Thailand, after being duped with fake job offers or even drugged.
