Remains of trafficking

Remains of trafficking

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Malaysian police forensic teams, digging with hoes and shovels, began the grim task of exhuming the bodies of dozens of suspected victims of human traffickers found buried around jungle camps near the Thai border.

Authorities believe at least two of the camps - where they have found nearly 140 graves - were abandoned in the last two to three weeks. That’s around the time Thailand launched a crackdown on people smugglers.

. BUKIT WANG BURMA, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Apparently abandoned in haste by the traffickers, what remained of the camp was little more than a tangle of bamboo and tarpaulin. However one police official, who didn’t want to be identified, said it could have housed up to 400 people.

A large plastic water tank at the camp suggested a degree of permanence. A call to Muslim prayers could be heard drifting from a nearby settlement.

. BUKIT WANG BURMA, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
Malaysian police said this cage made of barbed wire and bamboo sticks was used to hold migrants.

The grisly discoveries in Malaysia followed the uncovering of shallow graves on the Thai side of the border at the start of May. The find led to a crackdown on the camps by Thai authorities, after which traffickers abandoned thousands of migrants in overloaded boats in the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea.

State news agency Bernama quoted Malaysia's police chief, Inspector General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar, as saying that the camps were thought to have been occupied since 2013, and two were "only abandoned between two and three weeks ago".

Khalid said police had been "shocked by the cruelty" of the camps, where he said there were signs of torture.

. BUKIT WANG BURMA, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

An official said 37 graves had been found at the site, a few hundred metres from the Thai border. As police teams began to dig, body bags and white cotton shrouds were piled on the ground.

Police had removed a badly decomposed body found in a shack at one of the camps. The unidentified person had been dead around two or three weeks, police said.

. WANG KELIAN, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

"The victim could have died and the syndicate did not have time to bury the body as they were rushing to leave the camp," Bernama quoted local district police chief Rizani Che Ismail as saying.

. BUKIT WANG BURMA, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

Residents in the town of Wang Kelian, on the Malaysian side of the border, said they were used to seeing migrants in the area.

"They are often starving, not eaten for weeks," said Abdul Rahman Mahmud, who runs a small hostel. "They eat seeds or leaves or whatever they can find."

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. BUKIT WANG BURMA, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj
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BUKIT WANG BURMA, MALAYISA. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj