Malaysia: 24 bodies of human trafficking victims found

This is not the first time mass graves of suspected human trafficking victims are found in the region.

The discoveries have exposed hidden networks of jungle camps run by human smugglers, who have for years held countless desperate people captive while extorting ransoms from their families.

Police said they uncovered 24 bodies on Saturday in the Bukit Wang Burma area near the Malaysian border with Thailand, which is close to where authorities in May found hundreds of bodies in abandoned camps. In May, 139 graves were found.

“It is believed that heavy rain has eroded the graves”, Shafie Isamil, police chief of the Malaysian state of Perlis, was quoted as saying by the state news agency, Bernama. A team comprising 15 police officers and over 100 security personnel has exhumed the bodies, and sent them for examination.

A crackdown by Thai authorities in May drove traffickers to leave thousands of runaways and would-be migrants on rickety, overcrowded boats in Southeast Asian waters.

The heavily forested border area is frequently used by traffickers seeking to smuggle Bangladeshis and Rohingya Muslims – a persecuted minority in Myanmar – to Southeast Asia by boat.

At least 300 of them died in the sea, but there is no estimate of the deaths in the camps on Thai-Malaysian border.

The Star reported that the remains were discovered a few days ago.

Mirza Abdullahil Baqui, special superintendent (organised crime) of the Criminal Investigation Department of Bangladesh, said they had contacted the authorities in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and Philippines regarding the investigation into the trafficking cases.