Malaysia finds mass graves of 24 suspected human trafficking victims

[IceWizard]

Sun Aug 23, 2015 | 12:20 AM EDT

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -
Malaysian authorities have found mass graves containing the remains of more than 20 people believed to be human trafficking victims near the border with Thailand, police said on Sunday.

The heavily forested Thai-Malay border has
been a transit point for smugglers bringing
people to Southeast Asia by boat from
Myanmar and Bangladesh.

The migrants are often held for ransom in
squalid detention camps and according to some accounts face torture and starvation.

Police uncovered 24 bodies on Saturday in the
Bukit Wang Burma area near the Malaysian
border with Thailand, close to where authorities in May had found hundreds of bodies in illegal detention camps.

"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, adding that the remains
had been handed over to medical experts.

It was not immediately clear if the bodies
discovered were those of Rohingya, a minority
ethnic group in Myanmar, whose members have fled widespread persecution in that country.

A crackdown by Thai authorities in May drove
traffickers to abandon thousands of migrants on rickety, overcrowded boats in Southeast Asian waters, triggering a regional humanitarian crisis that saw them land in Malaysia and Indonesia after being rescued by fishermen.


(Reporting by Trinna Leong; Writing by
Kanupriya Kapoor; Editing by Clarence
Fernandez)