Two dozen skeletons found in Malaysian mass grave

The heavily forested Thai-Malaysian border has been a transit point for human traffickers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boats from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

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.

In May, Malaysian authorities discovered over a hundred bodies in mass graves near camps run by people smugglers in the country’s north. The finding came after 26 bodies were exhumed from trafficking camps in neighboring Thailand.

“Following on from the operation in which we found… bodies of illegal immigrants, 24 more bodies have been found and dug up,” police said in a statement on Sunday, adding that the remains had been handed over to medical experts.

Many were believed to be from impoverished migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority.

The earlier bodies, which were found in the same place near the latest discovery spot, were found to have been tortured or starved.

The new graves were found on Saturday near the peak of a hill surrounded by jungle terrain and along the Thai border, not too far from the graves unearthed in May, Perlis police chief Shafie Ismail was quoted as saying by Bernama, the country’s official news agency.

This triggered a regional humanitarian crisis that saw them land in Malaysia and Indonesia after being rescued by fishermen.

Human rights groups and activists say the area along the Thai-Malaysia border has been used for years to smuggle migrants and refugees, including Rohingya Muslims.

Mass graves were also discovered on the Thai side of the border.