Thai police exhume remains of 26 migrants at ‘trafficking camp’

Police officials in Thailand trekked into the mountains to dig up shallow graves Saturday, after the grim discovery of an abandoned jungle camp renewed calls for a crackdown on the human trafficking networks operating in the Southeast Asian country. The remains of 26 migrants thought to be from Myanmar or Bangladesh have been exhumed from the camp tucked away in a forested area of southern Thailand, said police General Jarumporn Suramanee, who was leading the excavation that started a day earlier.

In total we have 26 bodies. As far as I know one is a woman. We still cannot tell the cause of their deaths.

Head of the forensic team, Police General Jarumporn Suramanee

Friday’s grim discovery of the site, which is a few hundred metres from the border with Malaysia, again laid bare Thailand’s central role in a regional human trafficking trade. Authorities say the area of the camp, in the mountains of Padang Besar, a sub-district in Songkhla province, is regularly used to smuggle Rohingya Muslims, who are persecuted in neighboring Myanmar, as well as Bangladeshis and other migrants, to third countries. A government spokesman issued a stern reaction on Saturday, saying Thailand is determined “to eliminate every type of human trafficking and block Thailand from being a transit point.” The spokesman, Maj. Gen. Sansern Kaewkamnerd, added that those behind the camp will be “severely punished,” regardless of whether they are common criminals or corrupt officials.

Trafficking of persons in Thailand has long been out of control. The finding of a mass grave at a trafficking camp sadly comes as little surprise.

Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch

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