THAI OFFICIALS FIND LARGEST HUMAN TRAFFICKING CAMP YET

Songkhla, South Thailand, 25 Rajab 1436/14 May 2015 (MINA) –  Thai officials say they have found an abandoned human trafficking camp in the country’s south that is suspected of holding between 800 and 1000 people.

It is the largest camp found so far in the region since a massive search was launched May 1 for compounds that have been harbouring Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

An Anadolu Agency reporter travelling Tuesday with a team of military, police and forensic experts in the forested mountains of Sadao district, bordering Malaysia, said they had stumbled on the camp around 3 kilometers from an area where 33 corpses were exhumed May 1.

He described it as solidly built, permanent, and around one year old.

Twenty-one stilted huts served as “bedrooms,” and there were four additional huts where food was prepared, he added.

The camp appeared abandoned, as clothes and various tools were dispersed around the compound.

He said that police had told him that they think the smugglers had fled in a hurry, taking with them the Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi who were detained when the first camp was discovered.

Police have said they believe it belonged to the same trafficking network.

No graves were found in the camp discovered Tuesday.

“We suspect that this large camp was mostly used as a detention place,” police told Anadolu Agency.

On May 6, Junta Chief-cum-Prime Minister General Prayuth Chan-ocha gave officials in the south ten days to “eliminate all human trafficking camps.”

Since then, combined teams of police and military officers have been scouring the Thai-Malaysian border.

They have found five empty trafficking camps and 250 Bangladeshi and Rohingya wandering the forest, apparently abandoned by the smugglers. (T/P001/R04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)