Thai and Malaysian officials’ responses to the mass grave discoveries disrupted trafficking patterns and led to additional abuses against Rohingyan and Bangladeshi migrants, as the traffickers pushed boats out to sea and denied survivors any resources.
Since 2012, more than 150,000 Rohingya have fled western Burma to escape persecution, and human traffickers in Burma and Bangladesh have bought and sold tens of thousands of them, duping them onto modern-day slave ships with promises of lucrative employment in Malaysia.