2 Thais arrested for trafficking (Updated)
134 Bangladeshi, Rohingya found since Saturday in Phang Nga
Published: 14 Oct 2014 at 15.58 | Viewed: 3,876 | Comments: 1Online news: CrimeWriter: Reuters
Police Tuesday arrested two men on human-trafficking charges related to the discovery of several groups of suspected trafficking victims in Phang Nga province.
The two Thais were charged in relation to a group of 53 men found Saturday at a rubber plantation - 38 from Bangladesh and 15 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar.
Another 79 sick and exhausted boat people found Monday hiding on a remote island in the southern province, bringing to 134 the number of suspected human-trafficking victims found since Saturday, officials said.
"The two men have been charged with trafficking and bringing foreign labour into the country illegally," a senior police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. He said police were still looking for the gang leaders. If found guilty, the men face up to 10 years' jail.
Human rights group hailed the arrest, but said the number of victims found shows Thailand is making little progress in eliminating human trafficking.
"Although the arrest of alleged traffickers can be viewed as a positive step, the discovery of these groups shows that trafficking routes in Thailand are still very active," Sunai Phasuk, Thailand senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. "Regardless of the promises of the junta, nothing seems to have been done in concrete terms to stop trafficking gangs."
All but one of the 79 discovered Monday were from Bangladesh, according to local officials.
The first group found in a rubber plantation in Takua Pa district on Saturday comprised 38 men from Bangladesh and 15 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar. They have been moved to a shelter in neighbouring Ranong province while their cases are investigated by Thai authorities ahead of possible repatriation.
The remainder were discovered on Monday, and of those 79, one was a Burmese national and the rest from Bangladesh. They are now in the local district office.
"We have to wait for further information on this group to see if they were tricked in to coming or whether they came of their own volition," said Churin Kwanthong, head of the Phang Nga office of the Ministry and Social Development and Human Security. "If they were tricked then we would also consider them victims of human trafficking."
The high proportion of Bangladeshis cropping up on smuggling routes once plied mainly by Rohingya is consistent with what a leading Rohingya advocacy group says is an alarming rise in "forced departures" from Bangladesh.
"We are finding more and more cases like this," said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal. "A huge chain of people is involved."
She said the group had learned that brokers in Bangladesh were abducting men and boys, or luring them by false promises of work, then shipping them to Thailand and Malaysia. There they are held in jungle camps or houses until relatives secure their release by paying the traffickers a ransom - usually several thousand dollars each.
Reuters has not spoken directly to the people found by Thai police over the last three days.
But according to an official who heads the group that interviewed them, some said they had been forced or tricked into boarding a boat for Thailand. Others may have left Bangladesh voluntarily in search of work overseas.
Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, minister responsible for the welfare of Bangladeshis overseas, said the government was aware of people being lured on to boats.
"We reach out to the homes of common people in remote areas through our local representatives, but they do believe these brokers," he told Reuters. "But the number of such incidents now is less than it was previously."
Reuters reported last year how thousands of Rohingya were held and sometimes tortured by traffickers at jungle camps in southern Thailand until their families secured their release with ransoms of $2,000 or more.
The discovery of the boat people, along with the detention of dozens more Rohingya last month, suggests that smuggling routes are still thriving in Thailand.
Regional trafficking routes have been forged by misery, cruelty and market forces.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since 2012, when violent clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists killed hundreds and made about 140,000 homeless. Most were Rohingya, who now often live in apartheid-like conditions with little or no access to jobs, schools or healthcare.
Some opt to leave with the help of brokers, who ferry them to smuggling boats moored off the coast of neighbouring Bangladesh. Rohingya think the boats are heading for Malaysia, but they are waylaid in Thailand and held for ransom at camps.
The same route is now routinely plied by Bangladeshis leaving their homeland in search of jobs.
In January, two police raids in southern Thailand freed 636 people, about a third of them Bangladeshis - an "unprecedented" number, said police.
2 Thais arrested for trafficking (Updated)
134 Bangladeshi, Rohingya found since Saturday in Phang Nga
Published: 14 Oct 2014 at 15.58 | Viewed: 3,876 | Comments: 1Online news: CrimeWriter: Reuters
Police Tuesday arrested two men on human-trafficking charges related to the discovery of several groups of suspected trafficking victims in Phang Nga province.
The two Thais were charged in relation to a group of 53 men found Saturday at a rubber plantation - 38 from Bangladesh and 15 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar.
Another 79 sick and exhausted boat people found Monday hiding on a remote island in the southern province, bringing to 134 the number of suspected human-trafficking victims found since Saturday, officials said.
"The two men have been charged with trafficking and bringing foreign labour into the country illegally," a senior police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. He said police were still looking for the gang leaders. If found guilty, the men face up to 10 years' jail.
Human rights group hailed the arrest, but said the number of victims found shows Thailand is making little progress in eliminating human trafficking.
"Although the arrest of alleged traffickers can be viewed as a positive step, the discovery of these groups shows that trafficking routes in Thailand are still very active," Sunai Phasuk, Thailand senior researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Reuters. "Regardless of the promises of the junta, nothing seems to have been done in concrete terms to stop trafficking gangs."
All but one of the 79 discovered Monday were from Bangladesh, according to local officials.
The first group found in a rubber plantation in Takua Pa district on Saturday comprised 38 men from Bangladesh and 15 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar. They have been moved to a shelter in neighbouring Ranong province while their cases are investigated by Thai authorities ahead of possible repatriation.
The remainder were discovered on Monday, and of those 79, one was a Burmese national and the rest from Bangladesh. They are now in the local district office.
"We have to wait for further information on this group to see if they were tricked in to coming or whether they came of their own volition," said Churin Kwanthong, head of the Phang Nga office of the Ministry and Social Development and Human Security. "If they were tricked then we would also consider them victims of human trafficking."
The high proportion of Bangladeshis cropping up on smuggling routes once plied mainly by Rohingya is consistent with what a leading Rohingya advocacy group says is an alarming rise in "forced departures" from Bangladesh.
"We are finding more and more cases like this," said Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project, which plots migration across the Bay of Bengal. "A huge chain of people is involved."
She said the group had learned that brokers in Bangladesh were abducting men and boys, or luring them by false promises of work, then shipping them to Thailand and Malaysia. There they are held in jungle camps or houses until relatives secure their release by paying the traffickers a ransom - usually several thousand dollars each.
Reuters has not spoken directly to the people found by Thai police over the last three days.
But according to an official who heads the group that interviewed them, some said they had been forced or tricked into boarding a boat for Thailand. Others may have left Bangladesh voluntarily in search of work overseas.
Khandaker Mosharraf Hossain, minister responsible for the welfare of Bangladeshis overseas, said the government was aware of people being lured on to boats.
"We reach out to the homes of common people in remote areas through our local representatives, but they do believe these brokers," he told Reuters. "But the number of such incidents now is less than it was previously."
Reuters reported last year how thousands of Rohingya were held and sometimes tortured by traffickers at jungle camps in southern Thailand until their families secured their release with ransoms of $2,000 or more.
The discovery of the boat people, along with the detention of dozens more Rohingya last month, suggests that smuggling routes are still thriving in Thailand.
Regional trafficking routes have been forged by misery, cruelty and market forces.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar's Rakhine State since 2012, when violent clashes with ethnic Rakhine Buddhists killed hundreds and made about 140,000 homeless. Most were Rohingya, who now often live in apartheid-like conditions with little or no access to jobs, schools or healthcare.
Some opt to leave with the help of brokers, who ferry them to smuggling boats moored off the coast of neighbouring Bangladesh. Rohingya think the boats are heading for Malaysia, but they are waylaid in Thailand and held for ransom at camps.
The same route is now routinely plied by Bangladeshis leaving their homeland in search of jobs.
In January, two police raids in southern Thailand freed 636 people, about a third of them Bangladeshis - an "unprecedented" number, said police.
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