Malaysia has found 139 graves, and signs of torture, in more than two dozen squalid human trafficking camps suspected to have been used by gangs smuggling migrants across the border with Thailand, the country’s police chief said yesterday.
“It’s a very sad scene... To us even one is serious and we have found 139,” Malaysia’s Inspector General of Police, Khalid Abu Bakar, told reporters in the northern state of Perlis. “We are working closely with our counterparts in Thailand. We will find the people who did this.”
The grisly find follows the discovery of similar shallow graves on the Thai side of the border earlier this month, which helped trigger a regional crisis. After a crackdown on the camps by Thai authorities, traffickers abandoned thousands of migrants in rickety boats in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.
“We were shocked by the cruelty,” said Khalid, describing conditions at the 28 abandoned camps, scattered along a 50 km (30 mile) stretch of the Thai border, around which the graves were found in an operation that began on May 11.
Thousands are ferried by traffickers through southern Thailand each year, and in recent years it has been common for them to be held in remote camps along the rugged border with Malaysia until a ransom is paid.
Reuters investigations have shown ransom demands ranging from $1,200 to $1,800, a fortune for impoverished migrants used to living on a dollar or two a day.
Khalid said bullet casings were found in the vicinity and added there were signs that torture had been used, without elaborating. Metal chains were found near some graves.
But he declined to answer when asked how the extensive string of camps had been built without authorities knowing.
The first decomposed body was brought down to a police camp set up at the foot of the mountains where the camps were found yesterday evening, an operation that took nearly five hours due to the roughness of the terrain.
“The body was only bones and little bit of clothing on it,” said Rizani Che Ismail, officer-in-charge of Padang Besar police department, adding that the cause of death was not immediately apparent.
The graves will likely focus new attention on Malaysia’s record in battling a bustling trade that activists say is run by criminal syndicates with the suspected involvement of corrupt officials.
