Nightmare island where traffickers imprison Burma's Rohingya

[Lite Beer]

Nightmare island where traffickers imprison Burma's Rohingya
JOHN SPARKS
Asia Correspondent

BANGKOK: -- Beaten, imprisoned and sold into slavery - Channel 4 News reveals the fate of Burma's Muslim Rohingya refugees, who flee conflict only to end up in the clutches of brutal human traffickers.

It seems like a lot of people in Thailand are frightened of Tarutao Island, writes Channel 4 News Asia Correspondent John Sparks.

When we asked locals whether they would take us there by boat, they were quick to say no – and that seemed very odd indeed.

It was strange, because Tarutao Island is an absolutely spectacular Thai national park.

Situated 30km from the mainland in the sparkly blue waters of the Andaman Sea, the mountains of Tarutao dominate the surrounding area. It is cloaked in a rich layer of jungle and its beaches are white and hotel-free. It’s the sort of isolated spot that many people dream of spending time on.

Except Tarutao Island is also the stuff of nightmares. It took us weeks to find out why people were so frightened, but in the end it made perfect sense.

Local people and senior police officers, speaking off the record, told us the southern section of this beautiful island is gangster territory – the hood of human traffickers, who run a number of secret prisons from the jungle floor.

It is here that desperate migrants from neighbouring Burma are incarcerated, beaten and extorted – and risk being sold as slave labour to fishing fleets.

Rohingya exodus
Our story begins 2000 kilometres to the north however, a few miles off the shore of another island called St Martin’s. It straddles the border between Burma and Bangladesh and it is here that ocean-going ships anchor while awaiting their desperate human cargo.

The passengers are largely Rohingya – a Muslim minority now fleeing a vicious ethnic conflict in north-west Burma. Their situation is dire – civil rights group Human Rights Watch says they are victims of ethnic cleansing and crimes against humanity.

In fact, tens of thousands of Rohingya are now participating in a general exodus – an evacuation that is facilitated according to UN experts and NGO workers, by a sophisticated network of brokers, smugglers and human traffickers.

The numbers involved in this exodus are staggering – according to NGO Arakan Project, more than 35,000 have attempted to flee Burma in the last 12 months.

It constitutes the biggest movement of people by boat since the Vietnam War according to Phil Robertson of Human Rights Watch, who warns it may be just the beginning: “In the face of severe deprivation in Burma, the Rohingya have lost hope of staying in their homeland and it is not surprising that they are fleeing in droves. This is going to be a multi-year boat people crisis, and Burma's neighbouring governments are not ready for it."

Brokers and agents promise Rohingya passage to Malaysia – a country where they are generally permitted to stay. The would-be passengers are then gathered in secret locations near the Burmese or Bangladesh coast and hand over the equivalent of £200 for their journey.

When the ocean-going ships are ready, the brokers ferry them out in smaller boats, in a long-winded process that can take 3 or 4 days. Each passenger must wear a coloured wrist band, designating "ownership" by a particular group of traffickers.

Read More: http://www.channel4.com/news/nightmare-island-where-traffickers-imprison-burmas-muslims/

--4NEWS 2013-08-08

[bigbamboo]

Phew! For a minute there I thought this was going to be another Phuket horror story.

[Tomtomtom69]

So survivor island has now become torture island.

[dcutman]

I am a little sick after reading this story, but I am not shocked at all that this is happening here in the Land of Smiles.

I will be shocked if John Sparks isn't handed a defamation lawsuit come Monday morning.

Edited August 10, 2013 by dcutman

[BrianCR]

Phew! For a minute there I thought this was going to be another Phuket horror story.

So, as long as it doesn't involved Phuket it's okay right?

[Thai at Heart]

So a national park of Thailand has been commandeered by traffickers. How come no one in a position knew about this....

[bigbamboo]

Phew! For a minute there I thought this was going to be another Phuket horror story.

So, as long as it doesn't involved Phuket it's okay right?

Hardly.

This is a situation where ASEAN must prove it's more than just a glorified market.

[dcutman]

So a national park of Thailand has been commandeered by traffickers. How come no one in a position knew about this....

A better question, what is somebody in a position going to do about it.

Was not our ever inebriated former DPM now labor minister just spouting off about eradicating human trafficking in the last week or so?

[osiboy]

i find it very strange that only malaysia is accepting these refugese , with all the wealth held by arab/middle east countries........so much for the muslim brotherhood !, i expect europe/UK/USA will pick up the final tab , and it will be the west that eventually comes to the rescue , and in return the muslims will show their gratitude in the usual manor .

Edited August 10, 2013 by osiboy

[wellred]

I don't understand why they were not sent into Malaysia. I thought they were allowed to stay there so why are they locked up in detention centres?

[chooka]

So a national park of Thailand has been commandeered by traffickers. How come no one in a position knew about this....

Apparently they do but just turn a blind eye or get paid to ignore it.

"senior police officers, speaking off the record, told us the southern section of this beautiful island is gangster territory – the hood of human traffickers, who run a number of secret prisons from the jungle floor".

[metisdead]

Off topic muslim bashing posts and replies have been removed.

[noitom]

Tourism in Phuket is unaffected according to "informed" Thai officials.

[ricku]

If gangsters took over a national park in another country, police (and perhaps even military) would be swarming all over the place.

But this is lala-land.

[noitom]

Based on this investigative report, this Thai island should be investigated by the UN. This human trafficking industry in Thailand is something else.

[LomSak27]

Sounds like the the Vietnamese boat people all over agaiin. Back in the day we thought Koh Chang might be a neat place to go - totally undeveloped but locals on the mainland warned us off, groups of fishing boats based themselves here, before they went out fishing for refugee crafts coming acorss the gulf.

[Emptyset]

So a national park of Thailand has been commandeered by traffickers. How come no one in a position knew about this....

Apparently they do but just turn a blind eye or get paid to ignore it.

"senior police officers, speaking off the record, told us the southern section of this beautiful island is gangster territory – the hood of human traffickers, who run a number of secret prisons from the jungle floor".

The article goes on to say: "After several weeks, we found people who were willing to talk about what goes on there. The most revealing interview perhaps was with a man called Bo. He told us he was a member of a trafficking operation with personal responsibility for "security at Tarutao" - and he told me his group had paid off 10 police and military units in the last four months." Also appears that the director of the national park has been bought off by the traffickers.

Edited August 11, 2013 by Emptyset

[bigbamboo]

Based on this investigative report, this Thai island should be investigated by the UN. This human trafficking industry in Thailand is something else.

No need. We've got Super Chalerm, ex cop, ex fugitive and ex DPM just waiting to be let off his labour leash to go sniffing around.

[DocN]

Soon, tha TAT will announce, that the number of tourists is in no way affected by the published articles on "slave islands"...and unfortunately...this time, they are right!

Thailand -along with the rest of the world- will turn a blind eye to this problem.

[chrisinth]

"Tarutao Island is an absolutely spectacular Thai national park"

If none of the locals are willing to transport people to the island, how does the national park exist? Has anyone seen complaints from tourists that the island is inaccessible? Is the alleged pay-off to the director of the park enough to cover the figures?

Since when has the word of a person with personal responsibility for "security at Tarutao", working allegedly for a criminal organization, been taken as fact to collaborate the story without physical evidence? I don't think "Bo" will be too long on this planet if this is true................

What sort of investigational journalism takes weeks (in a given scenario like this) for people to start talking if the problem is known to the locals and affecting their trade (transportation of tourists to the island)?

To say that I am skeptical at the very least of the article is an understatement..................

This is not to say that nothing is happening there, just not to the scale exclusively reported.

[EyesWideOpen]

Well as long as they are not trafficking tourists out of Phuket I guess this is

all right. Wonder who the traffickers are, the police or the army. In the last big

incident of trafficking out of Ranong, they were a joint operation between the police

and the the army....

[yougivemebaby]

Shocking and disgusting.

[yougivemebaby]

The UN should step in on this. Obviously those dogs in authority would sell their own children for some grilled chicken.

[H1w4yR1da]

Sounds like the the Vietnamese boat people all over agaiin. Back in the day we thought Koh Chang might be a neat place to go - totally undeveloped but locals on the mainland warned us off, groups of fishing boats based themselves here, before they went out fishing for refugee crafts coming acorss the gulf.

Yeah, the pirates who preyed on the Vietnamese boat people were Thai. I remember talking to a Singaporean Navy guy once in the early '80's who absolutely loathed the Thais. At the time I couldnt understand why (I was still in my honeymoon phase) and he explained to me all the things he had witnessed while on duty in the Gulf of Thailand.

The way the Thai gangsters controlled the border at the time of the Khmer Rouge was also shameful. Read Dr. Haing S. Ngor's 'Surviving The Killing Fields' to see what kind of things the Thais did to Cambodians fleeing the KR. It's heart-wrenching stuff!. Can anyone be surprised that they're doing this to the Rohingya now? Of course, not all Thais are like this but I think there's something ingrained in their psyche.

I await the usual Thai-wannabes with their "if you don't like it go home' BS.

Edited August 11, 2013 by H1w4yR1da

[dcutman]

"Tarutao Island is an absolutely spectacular Thai national park"

If none of the locals are willing to transport people to the island, how does the national park exist? Has anyone seen complaints from tourists that the island is inaccessible? Is the alleged pay-off to the director of the park enough to cover the figures?

To say that I am skeptical at the very least of the article is an understatement..................

At the very least, you should read the article before being so skeptical. Its obvious you didnt.

[simple1]

I don't understand why they were not sent into Makaysia. I thought they were allowed to stay there so why are they locked up in detention centres?

Rohinya who are unable to reach Malaysia by sea or are secretly put ashore by traffickers whilst awaiting transfer to Malaysia are often caught by Thai autorities & held in detention. As has been frequently documented Thai authorities often work hand in hand with the traffickers to onsell the Rohingya to Malaysia based employers to work in slave like conditions

[simple1]

i find it very strange that only malaysia is accepting these refugese , with all the wealth held by arab/middle east countries........so much for the muslim brotherhood !, i expect europe/UK/USA will pick up the final tab , and it will be the west that eventually comes to the rescue , and in return the muslims will show their gratitude in the usual manor .

So you have not kept up with the news that Arab countries, Iran & Pakistan are currently overwhelmed by millions of refugees fleeing conflict zones. Countries such as Jordan, Iran and Pakistan have been providing refuge for millions of refugees for many years.

Saudi Arabia has an estimated 500k Rohingya for many years who entered on Bangladeshi passports; the problem is that Bangladesh is now seeking to cancel their passports as Rohingya are now considered as foreigners (rescind their citizenship). As you know Rohingya living in Myanmar are stateless as their citizenship was cancelled in 1982, so it makes the work of UNHCR to resettle them extremely difficult.

Rohingya refugees arriving in Malaysia have no legal status so are unable to get a proper job or give their children an education. In addition Malaysia is not a signatory to the UNHCR conventions so it's is very hard to arrange resettlement in other countries. Also Malaysia has millions of Indonesian illegal workers, making the Malaysian government job in dealing with refugees even more challenging.

Edited August 11, 2013 by simple1

[TackyToo]

This once beautiful country is getting sicker by the day, caused by bathism!

[bigbamboo]

Perhaps all those richer nations currently snuggling up with the Burmese leadership could persuade their new squeezes to treat the Rohingya decently?

[Scott]

Some inflammatory posts have been deleted.