Malaysia is investigating 12
policemen suspected of involvement in human-trafficking camps found in
the remote north of the country. Four of them had been arrested
during various police investigations since early last year, said Deputy
Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar. Authorities said 139 graves had been found on the border with Thailand.
The route is used by people-smugglers bringing migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh into Malaysia. The
migrants are mainly Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar -
also known as Burma - or economic migrants from Bangladesh. The
eight other policemen were arrested by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption
Commission for alleged involvement in human trafficking, Mr Wan Junaidi
said. "We will have to see whether or not there are any links to
the camps. Because the arrests were made in the north, we suspect there
may be some connection," he told reporters outside parliament.
On Tuesday, authorities started excavating the graves, found in jungle
in northern Perlis state, to confirm how many bodies they held, and who
they were. Thai police uncovered similar abandoned camps on the Thai side of the border earlier in May. Reports from news agencies taken to see the camps in Malaysia detailed evidence of torture and abuse. Reports
in Malaysian media questioned whether officials on both sides of the
border were complicit. On Tuesday, Malaysia said park rangers were under
investigation for suspected involvement in human-trafficking.
The
discovery of camps in Thailand triggered a crackdown on
human-trafficking that appears to have led traffickers to abandon their
human cargo on boats in the waters off Thailand. The boats, crammed with hundreds of starving migrants, started coming ashore in Malaysia and Indonesia. Facing
international pressure, the two countries agreed to provide temporary
shelter for the migrants on the condition that they will be repatriated
by other countries within a year.
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