Thai people smuggling crackdown creates fresh dangers

[webfact]

Thai people smuggling crackdown creates fresh dangers
AFP

Padang Besar: -- The two boys in the back of the Thai police pickup truck were terrified.
Dressed in ragged clothes, they had been caught close to a remote people smugglers' camp in southern Thailand's jungles where authorities found the remains of 26 people in shallow graves on the weekend.

"When the police raided the camp we ran away to another one nearby," the eldest boy, 15, from Sittwe in Myanmar, told reporters in Bengali before he was driven away.

He and his younger friend, from Chittagong in Bangladesh, had finally been caught wandering on their own, just a 40-minute walk from the first camp where they had been held until people-smugglers abandoned it, leaving behind only bodies and a few sick survivors.

Thailand's belated crackdown on human trafficking has created new dangers for desperate migrants as people smuggling gangs try to evade capture, leaving the weak to fend for themselves.

Stung by a notorious reputation for being a regional hub, the ruling junta have begun hitting back against smugglers.

Camps have been raided and traffickers arrested, including more than a dozen officials.

But many fear that push risks further endangering already vulnerable migrants as smugglers play cat and mouse with the authorities in the jungles.

Each year tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and Bangladesh flee persecution and poverty by making the dangerous sea crossing to southern Thailand, a well-worn trafficking route often on the way south to Malaysia and beyond.

Until recently, activists say, they were held in secret camps on the Thai-Malaysia border until relatives paid exorbitant release fees.

- Weak left behind -

But the recent raids have sent ripples through the region as smugglers move their quarry into even more remote and precarious encampments, according to rights groups.

Thai police believe the freshly uncovered settlement near Padang Besar in Songkhla province was vacated just two days before they arrived.

Alongside those buried in the unmarked graves, the smugglers left two desperately thin survivors who are now in hospital, and a fresh corpse. The teenage boys were apparently able to escape on foot, but it is not known what happened to the others held there.

"The raids have gone up in the last few months and the smugglers keep moving their camps, abandoning those who are too ill to leave with them," Chris Lewa of The Arakan Project, which monitors boat crossings and regularly interviews both survivors and smugglers, told AFP.

In recent months traffickers have switched to keeping thousands of migrants on boats in international waters, rather than risk bringing them to Thailand.

"There is a huge bottleneck at sea," Lewa said. "That is an even more dangerous situation."

Abdul Aziz Kade-in, from the Young Muslim Association of Thailand which works with Rohingya in Songkhla, said smugglers and migrants are frantically looking for new routes.

"Migrants will probably stop coming for a while or they might go in a different way such as by sea then go directly to Malaysia or Indonesia," he said.

Rights groups have long accused the Thai authorities of turning a blind eye to trafficking -- with previous crackdowns doing little to dent the thriving trade.

But the military rulers, who took over in a coup last May, insist they are serious this time and that any officials involved in trafficking will be punished "no matter who they are or which position they hold".

- Business and image -

Analysts say this recently discovered vigour is partially fuelled by economics.

Last month the EU threatened to ban fish imports from Thailand unless it does more to stamp down on illegal practices, including the use of slave labour and trafficked persons on boats.

The US has also dumped Thailand, which is faced with a stuttering economy, to the bottom of its list of countries failing to tackle modern-day slavery.

"The military government cannot afford to have another economic blow. They therefore have to show to the international community that they are tackling this issue seriously now," said Puangthong Pawakapan from Chulalongkorn University.

Paul Chambers, director of research at the Institute of South East Asian Affairs in Chiang Mai, believes the crackdown also has a cosmetic purpose.

"As Thailand is now already tarnished for its coup-prone image, the notion that a junta can better crack down on human trafficking is something that nevertheless might diminish the warts from the junta's appearance," he told AFP.

In Malaysia, those Rohingya who made it know their relatives are now caught between the whims of increasingly pressured people smugglers and the vagaries of Thai politics.

And the recent discovery of mass graves has only created more alarm.

"They are worried if their loved ones or friends are among the dead or if they are held in other camps," Saifullah Muhammad, a Rohingya activist in Kuala Lumpur, told AFP.

"Or worse still," he added, "dead in another unknown grave."

The two frightened teenagers in the back of the police truck have at least avoided such a fate. Many youngsters make the perilous journey, aiming to join families already in Malaysia, or travelling ahead to earn enough money to pay for more relatives to be smuggled out.

But now an uncertain future in an detention camp for illegal immigrants, where conditions are harsh, awaits them.


-- (c) Copyright AFP 2015-05-05

[Robby nz]

In recent months traffickers have switched to keeping thousands of migrants on boats in international waters, rather than risk bringing them to Thailand.

"There is a huge bottleneck at sea," Lewa said. "That is an even more dangerous situation."

So in other words nothing is being done to prevent the people smugglers from loading their victims on to boats and as long as nothing is being done the insidious trade will continue.

No matter what is done in Thailand even if the last camp is found and the last Thai official who has been complicit in this is caught and jailed it will not stop the smuggling, they will simply bypass Thailand and carry on.

Where is the UN, EU, US in pressuring other countries on this, why is there no way to stop these ships and search them ?

[Suffinator]

The two boys in the back of the Thai police pickup truck were terrified.
Dressed in ragged clothes, they had been caught close to a remote people smugglers' camp in southern Thailand's jungles where authorities found the remains of 26 people in shallow graves on the weekend.

The question is ... why would children run away from a police officers? Of course we are taught in the west that a police officers job is to protect and serve ... in Thailand it appears they are taught how to instill fear and extort ... worse those kids could have fled because they knew it was police officers who where part of the trafficking ring ... maybe not the officers in this case but to a kid they'll all look the same.

Whilst my Thai wife and I no longer live in the cesspit named Thailand I have to say that my wife has followed the news and she is thoroughly ashamed to be a Thai right now. Still she has a British passport so it's easy to deny but I do wonder how many regular Thais feel total shame and disgrace on how successive governments and authorities have turned a blind eye to the mass murders and even profited from it.

[Godders]

Love the headline. Surprised, with so much crackdown around these days, there's money to be made selling more.

[Oziex1]

So, Mr PM you talked to the foreigners and they understand Thailand and your coup?

[ggt]

Rights groups have long accused the Thai authorities of turning a blind eye to trafficking...

I disagree completely...Thai authorities in the area keep an eye out for extra tea money...

[issanaus]

The two boys in the back of the Thai police pickup truck were terrified.

Dressed in ragged clothes, they had been caught close to a remote people smugglers' camp in southern Thailand's jungles where authorities found the remains of 26 people in shallow graves on the weekend.

The question is ... why would children run away from a police officers? Of course we are taught in the west that a police officers job is to protect and serve ... in Thailand it appears they are taught how to instill fear and extort ... worse those kids could have fled because they knew it was police officers who where part of the trafficking ring ... maybe not the officers in this case but to a kid they'll all look the same.

Whilst my Thai wife and I no longer live in the cesspit named Thailand I have to say that my wife has followed the news and she is thoroughly ashamed to be a Thai right now. Still she has a British passport so it's easy to deny but I do wonder how many regular Thais feel total shame and disgrace on how successive governments and authorities have turned a blind eye to the mass murders and even profited from it.

The question is ... why would children run away from a police officers?

You think that these kids have had to travel all the way to Thailand to learn to fear uniforms - seriously. Are you really that dismissive of the years of suffering that these people have endured before getting to Thailand

[Robby nz]

The two boys in the back of the Thai police pickup truck were terrified.

Dressed in ragged clothes, they had been caught close to a remote people smugglers' camp in southern Thailand's jungles where authorities found the remains of 26 people in shallow graves on the weekend.

The question is ... why would children run away from a police officers? Of course we are taught in the west that a police officers job is to protect and serve ... in Thailand it appears they are taught how to instill fear and extort ... worse those kids could have fled because they knew it was police officers who where part of the trafficking ring ... maybe not the officers in this case but to a kid they'll all look the same.

Whilst my Thai wife and I no longer live in the cesspit named Thailand I have to say that my wife has followed the news and she is thoroughly ashamed to be a Thai right now. Still she has a British passport so it's easy to deny but I do wonder how many regular Thais feel total shame and disgrace on how successive governments and authorities have turned a blind eye to the mass murders and even profited from it.

If you were to read to the OP and attempt to comprehend then you may realize it was the people smugglers they ran away from when the group were being moved to another place.

You may even realize that these kids are not from the west therefor don't have western values and have been duped and mistreated by those they see as authority both where they came from and on the way to this point in their lives.

To attempt to blame Thailand for the abhorrent trafficking when it is only a staging point used by these criminals is only Thai bashing. However I do agree that something should have been done years ago by those in authority.

With your attitude Thailand is better off without you, please don't come back.

[cookee68]

I wish we had harsh government detention camps for all the illegals that come to the UK

[docshock13]

We are a horrible species.

[mercman24]

TRAFFICKING FEAR :: hi i have a close friend, (34) who is a qualified Masseuse, she text me last night as to flying to Korea to practice, as there is no future in Thailand, she has been approached by a lady, to say there is plenty of work there, she/they will sort out her air fare and passport. we all have heard many tales of false promises - keeping their passports - and then forcing them into prostitution to pay off the debt, - i have never been to Korea can anyone enlighten me please, (hope its not North Korea) i dont think i can dissuaed ? her on this. but any input appreciated. thanks KC.