Over 10 key players in Rohingya trafficking

[webfact]

Over 10 key players in Rohingya trafficking
The Nation

Government official provides aliases of gang leaders, says the gang leaders made 'big money' from people smuggling

BANGKOK: -- MORE THAN 10 big agents have allegedly been smuggling Rohingya people from Myanmar to a third country, an informed source revealed.

The source, who is a member of an anti-human trafficking team, said recently that these agents collected Bt30,000 from each refugee and another Bt60,000 from employers in the third country - usually Malaysia.

"These agents have contacts in Myanmar's Rakhine region from where the Rohingya people are exported," he said.

The peak season of Rohingya smuggling has already begun as storms over the Andaman Sea have died down as they do between November and April every year.

With links to smuggling gangs, each seemingly innocent-looking fishing trawler can carry more than 200 Rohingya people per trip, while a big boat can carry as many as 1,000, the source said.

He disclosed this information in the wake of a recent discovery of 299 illegal migrants in a fishing trawler in Ranong's Kapoe Bay. Of the migrants, 219 were Rohingya and the remainder Bangladeshi nationals.

"Our investigation suggests that the illegal migrants usually get off small trawlers at secluded piers in Ranong's Muang, Kapoe and Suk Samran districts," he said.

He explained that larger boats bypass Ranong waters, moving through international waters to Thailand's Satun province, which borders Malaysia.

According to the source, the illegal migrants are kept in Satun until they can be forwarded to employers in Malaysia.

He said the Thailand-based agents began trafficking Rohingya people after the number of Myanmar nationals for their illegal business dropped. He provided the aliases of the key agents, choosing not to directly identify anybody by their full name.

"These suspects run restaurants, pubs, piers for fisheries and refrigerated truck services as fronts. While these legitimate businesses clearly don't generate massive revenues, each of these people have hundreds of millions of baht in assets," he said. "Some even have billions."

The source said officials were currently in the process of coordinating with the Anti-Money Laundering Office to investigate the suspects' assets and find out if some of these were ill-gotten gains.

When Social Development and Human Security Minister Pol General Adul Saengsingkaew listened to the problems related to Rohingya people yesterday, he made it clear that the police need to take strong action against traffickers.

Separately, Reuters reported that Thai authorities have been planning to push more than 200 boat people out to sea despite calls from rights groups to stop this, as it would put the asylum seekers at greater risk.

These people were found at sea on Saturday and arrested for illegal entry. Their discovery around 3 kilometres from the coast follows what one NGO said was a "major maritime exodus" of Rohingya from neighbouring Myanmar.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/Over-10-key-players-in-Rohingya-trafficking-30247557.html


-- The Nation 2014-11-12

[NextStationBangkok]

They are not refugees, they are trafficked for cheap labor. Here is the real truth coming out.......

[noitom]

The Thais are on the trail of the "ill-gotten gains." Based on the information provided by the "informed source" it would be relatively easy to set up a sting operation and nail the Thai big men. If they really wanted to.

[Lupatria]

He said the Thailand-based agents…

"These suspects run restaurants, pubs, piers for fisheries and refrigerated truck services as fronts.”

Didn’t we forget to mention a tiny little fact here? Or is this indicating that the Thailand based “agents” are –of course- all foreigners who run the above mentioned businesses here?

[Emster23]

Hmmm no mention of various governmental types that must have had their collective fingers in the pie. This sort of traffic simply couldn't exist without support from "powers that be".

[ratcatcher]

Over 10 key players in Rohingya trafficking.

And...................................their names are?