Thailand secretly dumps Myanmar refugees into trafficking rings

**Phuketrichard** · 05-12-2013, 11:51 AM

PHUKET: One afternoon in October, in the watery no-man's land between Thailand and Myanmar, well-known to Phuket visa-runners, Muhammad Ismail vanished.

Thai immigration officials said he was being deported to Myanmar. In fact, they sold Ismail, 23, and hundreds of other Rohingya to human traffickers, who then spirited them into brutal jungle camps.

As thousands of Rohingya flee Myanmar to escape religious persecution often washing ashore in Phang Nga, Phuket and other provinces along the Andaman coast (story here), a Reuters investigation in three countries has uncovered a clandestine policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thailand's immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea.

The Rohingya are then transported across southern Thailand and held hostage in a series of camps hidden near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay thousands of dollars to release them (story here). Reporters located three such camps – two based on the testimony of Rohingya held there, and a third by trekking to the site, heavily guarded, near a village called Baan Klong Tor.

Read more here, Phuket NEWS: Special Report

**Bettyboo** · 05-12-2013, 12:00 PM

Yes, Thais are scum; similar story in Eritrea on BBC today...

Some posters will be along along soon to explain how nice the Thais are.

**lom** · 05-12-2013, 12:33 PM

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Yes, Thais are scum

Tell your wife!

**Bettyboo** · 05-12-2013, 12:35 PM

^ I do, regularly; she'd doubtless sell me into slavery if she could - hang on a minute, here I am, in the shitty desert, sending me money back to Thailand...

**Perota** · 05-12-2013, 01:18 PM

Nothing new. Thai fishermen used to have very bad reputation with Vietnamese boat people.

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Some posters will be along along soon to explain how nice the Thais are.

This is a common misunderstanding, Thais don't like confrontation but it doesn't mean they are nice. It doesn't mean there all bad either.

Usually when someone is not happy, there are some kind of warning in his attitude. With Thais it is expressed in ways that foreigners have difficulties to understand. That's why they are often surprised when the relation turn bad, sometime violent, "without warning".

**leemo** · 05-12-2013, 02:00 PM

Originally Posted by lom

Originally Posted by Bettyboo

Yes, Thais are scum

Tell your wife!

After a lot of patience, understanding and perseverance of their culture on my part, even my Thai wife occasional blurts 'monkey' in reference to their behaviour and attitudes.

**Bettyboo** · 05-12-2013, 02:11 PM

I bought a book 10+ years ago which was in various chapters written by Burmese who had been treated/sold as as slaves, friends/relatives murdered, forced into prostitution, etc - several stories about the fishing boats... I use it a lot with Thais, but they choose to live in denial...

**vaancc** · 06-12-2013, 03:57 AM

oh my god

**Mid** · 08-12-2013, 05:22 PM

Thai PM pledges help on Rohingya trafficking investigation
8 December 2013

In this picture from July 2013, Rohingya Muslims are shown inside an immigration detention centre in Thailand's Kanchanaburi province.
(Reuters)

Thailand has pledged to help with any investigation into a report that Thai immigration officials moved Burmese refugees into human-trafficking rings.

However, aides to Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra declined to comment directly on the allegations contained in the investigation by the Reuters news agency.

The United Nations and the United States called on Friday for an investigation into the report, published on Thursday and based on a two-month investigation in three countries.

Reuters correspondents detailed a clandestine policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thai immigration detention centres and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea.

Prime Minister Yingluck, who chairs a government committee on human trafficking, declined to comment on the findings when asked about her reaction.

“I cannot comment on the Rohingya issue and reaction as this is the responsibility of the Foreign Ministry to handle,” she said in a comment delivered through an aide.

“The ministry will liaise with the United States and the UN to help with any investigation they need.”

Tens of thousands of stateless Rohingya have fled violence in Burma by boat and many arrive off southwestern Thailand.

After being delivered to human traffickers at sea, the Rohingya are transported across southern Thailand and held hostage in camps hidden near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay ransoms to release them, according to the Reuters report. Some are beaten and some are killed.

“These allegations need to be investigated urgently,” UN refugee agency spokeswoman Vivian Tan said in a statement.

“We urge the Thai government to conduct a serious and transparent investigation into the matter,” said US State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf.

Pol Maj General Chatchawal Suksomjit of the Royal Thai Police was quoted in the Reuters report as saying that there was an unofficial policy to deport the Rohingya to Burma.

He called this “a natural way or option two”. But he said the Rohingya signed statements in which they agree they want to return to Burma.

These statements, however, were at times produced in the absence of a Rohingya-language translator, Reuters found.

Nine people have been arrested in Thailand in relation to Rohingya smuggling in 2013, including two government officials, according to police data.

None of the arrests have led to convictions.

dvb.no

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