20 more face arrest over trafficking

[Lite Beer]

MYANMAR AND BANGLADESH MIGRANTS
20 more face arrest over trafficking
THE SUNDAY NATION, AGENCIES

BANGKOK: -- Some 49 suspects allegedly involved in trafficking gangs; Padang Besar mayor's home searched; Koh Lipe man surrenders

POLICE will seek warrants to arrest another 20 people suspected of being involved in the trafficking of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, a senior officer said yesterday.

Deputy national police chief General Aek Angsananont, who is in charge of the Royal Thai Police's Centre Against Human Traffick-|ing, said police were seeking court permission to arrest 20 suspects - |in addition to warrants for 29 |other suspects issued earlier, he |said.

Suspect Somyos Angchotphan, a tourism-related businessman on Lipe Island in Satun, surrendered yesterday to Aek. He denied any involvement with human trafficking.

So far 11 suspects have surrendered or been arrested in connection to the case.

More than 200 police and military yesterday searched the home of Padang Besar mayor Banjong Pongpol, a suspect in the case from Songkhla, as well as four other locations. A number of documents were confiscated.

Authorities yesterday questioned 117 migrants discovered in the South to see if they were victims of human trafficking.

Thailand is racing to meet a deadline to uncover people smuggling camps within its borders.

Some 33 bodies, believed to be migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, were found in shallow graves in Songkhla this month. Three suspected trafficking camps were also found.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha announced a 10-day deadline to crack down the illicit trade. On Friday, Prayut called for a three-way meeting with neighbours Malaysia and Myanmar to try to end the regional trafficking crisis.

The 117 migrants were found in Songkhla's Rattaphum district, near the Malaysian border, the province's deputy governor Ekarat Sisen said. Most are from Bangladesh.

"There are 117 people here, 26 of them are Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar and the rest are from Bangladesh," Ekarat said.

"We need to figure out if any of these people are trafficking victims or whether they entered country on their own. If they are victims of human trafficking we must hand them over to Ministry of Social Development and Human Security. Those who voluntarily entered the country illegally will be sent to Immigration Police and eventually sent back to their country of origin."

Huddled in a meeting room in Rattaphum, the 117 migrants, including three children, brushed their teeth, slept, prayed and ate while waiting to be interviewed, according to a Reuters reporter at the scene.

Some villagers came to donate water, rice and fruit to the migrants.

Thirteen-year-old Busri Salam from Bangladesh said his group disembarked a boat in Thailand and trekked for two weeks in the jungle to try and reach Malaysia. "My brother is in Malaysia. I wanted to go there," he said.

An estimated 25,000 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis boarded people smugglers' boats in the first three months of the year, double the number a year earlier, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said on Friday.

The migrants brave perilous journeys to escape religious and ethnic persecution and poverty.

A Malaysian representative from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation will fly to Thailand tomorrow to observe the investigation into the human trafficking case, according to Visut Billatay, a senior official from the Sheikhul Islam Office.

Separately, regional police official Maj-General Puthichart Ekachant said: "So far there have been 199 victims found in Songkhla province alone."

Of the migrants discovered, 74 were Rohingya from Myanmar and 58 were Bangladeshis while the background of 67 more was yet to be determined, he added.

More than 50 police officers, including senior officials, have also been transferred from their posts for complicity or failing to act on the trade.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/national/20-more-face-arrest-over-trafficking-30259722.html

-- The Nation 2015-05-10

[EricBerg]

"More than 50 police officers, including senior officials, have also been transferred from their posts for complicity or failing to act on the trade."

"for complicity" they get a transfer. Complicity to trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, abuse, assault, torture or murder? What excatly did those BiB-guys do to not be put in prison?

[jollyhangmon]

"More than 50 police officers, including senior officials, have also been transferred from their posts for complicity or failing to act on the trade."

"for complicity" they get a transfer. Complicity to trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, abuse, assault, torture or murder? What excatly did those BiB-guys do to not be put in prison?

Now, surely this sort of 'transfer' mentioned here as well as the numerous 'inactive posts' popping up around here all the time just like 'shrooms back in 1986 (Chernobyl) are meant to get suspects outta way of proper investigations, until further notice or so.

Know what? Scratch that, don't even believe it myself ...

[Usual Suspect]

Prayut has given the police a 10 day deadline to sort this mess out... yet the RTP still have to go to the courts for permission to arrest the suspects they've 'uncovered'..??

[Lite Beer]

Three more suspects wanted for Rohingya trafficking are in police custody

BANGKOK: -- A provincial councilor of Satun province and two of his men were the latest suspects held in police custody for alleged involvement in the trafficking of Rohingya people, said Pol Gen AekAngsananont, the deputy national police chief, Sunday morning.

He said the arrest of Abu Ha-ura, a Satun provincial councilor, and the surrender of his two men had brought the number of suspects in police custody to 15out of a total of 49 wanted by the police.

The three suspects were taken to Nathawee provincial court for an order to extend their detention.

Meanwhile, a body believed to be that of a Rohingya was found at an abandoned cemetery in Ban KohYaPai in Tambon Padang Besar on top of six bodies which were uncovered in the same area.

The body was later sent to SongkhlaNakarind hospital for an autopsy.

An informed police source said that the human trafficking network in Satun was the biggest in the southern region and it involved as many as 29 people, including two Malaysians and a former local politician who has reportedly fled out of the country.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/three-more-suspects-wanted-for-rohingya-trafficking-are-in-police-custody

-- Thai PBS 2015-05-10

[soalbundy]

Tier 3, working a treat isn't it, all they need is someone to threaten their wallet and they are all go, up to a certain level anyway.

[lvr181]

Prayut has given the police a 10 day deadline to sort this mess out... yet the RTP still have to go to the courts for permission to arrest the suspects they've 'uncovered'..??

Yup, sure is "strange". I thought the Police arrest and the courts try the suspects? TITS

[atsiii]

"More than 50 police officers, including senior officials, have also been transferred from their posts for complicity or failing to act on the trade."

"for complicity" they get a transfer. Complicity to trafficking, extortion, kidnapping, abuse, assault, torture or murder? What excatly did those BiB-guys do to not be put in prison?

Easy: in the best of Thai traditions, they 'paid' for their transfers. Good thing they had saved up their outside incomes!

[DennisF]

.I am pleased to see that a small mionority of suspects are actually military.

Coup must have been a good idea.