Added to the previously found 139 graves of trafficking victims in the transit camps in the Malaysia-Thailand border area, around 91 more graves are now believed to be located in the Mata Ayer Forest of Malaysia.
Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Shahidan Kassim on Tuesday disclosed the search for the new graves.
Malaysian police and the forensics team on Wednesday morning began a journey into Thailand to enter the Forest Reserve in Lubuk Sireh, Perlis, which is located about 100m from the border, to dig for graves at the transit camp used for human trafficking.
The route via Ban Talok, Thailand, takes about an hour because the path is not as steep as the Wang Kelian route, where another transit camp was discovered earlier.
According to the website of Malaysian news channel Astro Awani, six land rovers and pick-up trucks left the Padang Besar police station at about 9am, local time.
The vehicles are believed to be part of the logistics team which will be bringing the equipment to dig the graves.
The channel quoted a police saying another team is expected to leave soon.
Malaysian police had earlier said that Thailand authorities have granted the Malaysian team five days to enter the camp and bring out the bodies through Banh, Thailand.
Thailand police in early May had found secret human-trafficking camps on their side of the border and dozens of shallow graves.
Thailand launched a crackdown on human-smuggling following the discovery of its mass graves.
The General Operations Force (GOF) and the VAT 69 Commando unit had last month found 14 large tents and three other smaller tents located on the Malaysia-Thailand border.
Meanwhile, 35 human skeletons found in the Bukit Burma jungle in Wang Kelian, believed to be victims of the human trafficking syndicates, have been taken to the Sultanah Bahiyah Hospital, ALor Setar, Kedah for pathological processes.
To date, 139 graves at 28 temporary camps of the human trafficking syndicates were found between Kampung Wai in Kuala Perlis and Tangga 100 at Felcra Lubuk Sireh, Padang Besar.
Earlier, Malay Mail online reported quoting Perlis Police chief SAC Shafie Ismail, the Thai police had given the green light to use the access route to the location of the 91 graves identified in the forest reserve.