Six more suspected Rohingya bodies found in Thai trafficking probe

The bodies of six suspected Rohingya migrants from Myanmar have been dug up by Thai authorities at a rubber plantation close to where a mass grave was found last week, the military said on Wednesday.

The discovery was made in Thailand's Songkhla province, near the country's border with Malaysia, less than 3 miles from the site where 26 corpses were found a few days ago.

Thai authorities have not yet identified the remains of any of the bodies, saying they are severely decayed.

“Villagers living nearby told us the bodies buried here are the bodies of Rohingya migrants from Myanmar from nearby human trafficking camps,” Col. Jatuporn Klampasut told Reuters.

While forensic officers have yet to conclude the causes of death, police have speculated that they died from malnutrition or disease.

Many illegal migrants in Thailand are Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar and from Bangladesh who brave often perilous journeys by sea to escape religious and ethnic persecution.

Traffickers transport thousands of Rohingya to predominantly Buddhist Thailand every year. Many are then taken into the jungle, where traffickers demand ransoms to smuggle them south across the border to mainly Muslim Malaysia.

Authorities on Tuesday said they found a second, abandoned camp used for human trafficking. Three people were rescued from the near the camp, Thai police said.

The U.S., which has criticized Thailand for failing to act against human trafficking, has called for a speedy and credible inquiry into the discovery of the mass grave. Last June, the U.S. put Thailand in its lowest category — tier 3 — in an annual assessment of how governments around the world have performed in fighting human trafficking.

Police in Thailand have so far arrested four men — three Thais and a Burmese national — on suspicion of human trafficking. Arrest warrants have been issued for four others.

A police officer based in Padang Besar who spoke on condition of anonymity said that police intelligence showed there could be three more camps on the same mountain range as the recently discovered sites.

“There are three camps on that mountain with up to 700 people in each camp, we are told,” said the officer. “It is just a matter of time now whether we can find them, as we've been told the human traffickers are being tipped off and are moving their camps.” 

Rights groups have long accused the Thai authorities of turning a blind eye to — and even being complicit in — human smuggling.

"Trafficking of persons in Thailand has long been out of control," Brad Adams, the Asia director at Human Rights Watch said Saturday. 

Wire services