News Digest

Malaysia finds 139 graves in extensive migrant ‘detention’ camps

Malaysian authorities have found 139 graves, and signs of torture, in more than two dozen squalid human trafficking camps suspected to have been used by gangs smuggling migrants across the border with 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. "It’s a very sad scene… To us even one is serious and we have found 139,“ Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters at a news conference in the northern state of Perlis.

We are working closely with our counterparts in Thailand. We will find the people who did this.

Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar

The grisly find follows the discovery of similar shallow graves on the Thai side of the border earlier this month, which helped trigger a regional crisis. After a crackdown on the camps by Thai authorities, traffickers abandoned thousands of migrants in rickety boats in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea. "We were shocked by the cruelty,” said Khalid, describing conditions at the 28 abandoned camps, located within about 500 metres of the Thai border, where the graves were found in an operation that began on May 11. Thousands of Rohingya Muslims are ferried by traffickers through southern Thailand each year and it has been common for them to be held in remote camps along the rugged border with Malaysia until a ransom is paid for their freedom.