PHUKET: Concerns were mounting today for the welfare of 106 Rohingya men, women and children who are being held north of Phuket while officials decide whether they are victims of human trafficking or illegal migrants.
A 10-year-old among an unusually high number of boys in the group told Phuketwan yesterday that he had been kidnapped from Rakhine state in Burma (Myanmar) and carried south on a boat without his parents knowing.
Through a translator, 10-year-old Muhammed said: '''I was grabbed by a gang and found myself on the boat. I want to go back home and stay with my parents.'''
It's unlikely that kidnappings of children by traffickers would take place without the knowledge of Burmese authorities or police in Rakhine state, where the government tacitly supports ethnic cleansing that encourages the stateless and unwanted Rohingya to flee by sea.
Its not known how many among the 106 now being held north of Phuket at Phang Nga Immigration have claimed to be kidnap victims.
However, a senior police officer in the province said today that the group were illegal migrants and ''not kidnapped.''
Boatpeople are seldom declared as human trafficking victims by authorities in Thailand because imperfect processing and poor translator interview techniques often allow local authorities to achieve the result that they want.
Illegal migrants can quickly be transferred back to the Thai-Burma border, which within days usually delivers Rohingya back into the hands of traffickers.
Burma does not accept back fleeing Rohingya.
There have even been cases in the past few months in Thailand where one group of people from a boat has been declared illegal immigrants while another group from the same boat has been declared human trafficking victims.
Thailand, relegated to lowest-level Tier 3 in last year's US State Department Trafficking in Persons report, is making the right noises about a change in approach to human trafficking.
However, in the prime trafficking territory of the Andaman coast, local authorities are still in the middle of a change from the old ways to the new ways.
Phuketwan used a different translator yesterday to the translator being used by officials at Phang Nga Immigration.
Cases of kidnapping would clearly be a cause for individuals to be designated as human trafficking victims, not illegal migrants.
The Governor of Phang Nga, Prayoon Rattanaseri, told Phuketwan today that the case involving the 106 boatpeople was ''still under investigation.''
A spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Vivian Tan, said that under the new structure, UNHCR officials would be allowed access to the group after local officials had completed their preliminary investigation.
''This is certainly not the first time that we've heard of allegations of kidnapping from Rakhine state,'' she said.
The 106, who were dumped by their Thai trafficker on an island off Phang Nga earlier in the week, are at least safe on land.
Thousands of increasingly weak and hungry Rohingya and Bangladeshi boatpeople are still afloat in the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Strait with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia rejecting international calls for them to be intercepted and brought to safety immediately.
Declaration of Interest
Phuketwan journalists Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison are being sued by the Royal Thai Navy for criminal defamation and a Computer Crimes Act count over a 41-word paragraph republished from a Reuters series on Burma's Rohingya boatpeople. The series won a Pulitzer Prize.
The Royal Thai Navy is not mentioned in the paragraph. The precedent-setting military-versus-media action predates last May's Army takeover in Thailand. A trial of the two journalists resumes in July. The maximum penalty for the pair is seven years' jail.
WATCH How Trafficking Works
Phuketwan Investigative reporter Chutima Sidasathian, still being sued for criminal defamation over a Reuters paragraph: ''It's worse and worse, day by day. Nobody cares''.
http://journeyman.tv/67116/short-films/rohingya-hd.html
LISTEN The Rohingya Solution
A tragedy almost beyond words has been unfolding in Thailand, where a human smuggling network is thriving with the full knowledge of some corrupt law enforcement officers. Alan Morison of Phuketwan talks to Australia's AM program.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4231108.htm
A 10-year-old among an unusually high number of boys in the group told Phuketwan yesterday that he had been kidnapped from Rakhine state in Burma (Myanmar) and carried south on a boat without his parents knowing.
Through a translator, 10-year-old Muhammed said: '''I was grabbed by a gang and found myself on the boat. I want to go back home and stay with my parents.'''
It's unlikely that kidnappings of children by traffickers would take place without the knowledge of Burmese authorities or police in Rakhine state, where the government tacitly supports ethnic cleansing that encourages the stateless and unwanted Rohingya to flee by sea.
Its not known how many among the 106 now being held north of Phuket at Phang Nga Immigration have claimed to be kidnap victims.
However, a senior police officer in the province said today that the group were illegal migrants and ''not kidnapped.''
Boatpeople are seldom declared as human trafficking victims by authorities in Thailand because imperfect processing and poor translator interview techniques often allow local authorities to achieve the result that they want.
Illegal migrants can quickly be transferred back to the Thai-Burma border, which within days usually delivers Rohingya back into the hands of traffickers.
Burma does not accept back fleeing Rohingya.
There have even been cases in the past few months in Thailand where one group of people from a boat has been declared illegal immigrants while another group from the same boat has been declared human trafficking victims.
Thailand, relegated to lowest-level Tier 3 in last year's US State Department Trafficking in Persons report, is making the right noises about a change in approach to human trafficking.
However, in the prime trafficking territory of the Andaman coast, local authorities are still in the middle of a change from the old ways to the new ways.
Phuketwan used a different translator yesterday to the translator being used by officials at Phang Nga Immigration.
Cases of kidnapping would clearly be a cause for individuals to be designated as human trafficking victims, not illegal migrants.
The Governor of Phang Nga, Prayoon Rattanaseri, told Phuketwan today that the case involving the 106 boatpeople was ''still under investigation.''
A spokesperson for the UN refugee agency UNHCR, Vivian Tan, said that under the new structure, UNHCR officials would be allowed access to the group after local officials had completed their preliminary investigation.
''This is certainly not the first time that we've heard of allegations of kidnapping from Rakhine state,'' she said.
The 106, who were dumped by their Thai trafficker on an island off Phang Nga earlier in the week, are at least safe on land.
Thousands of increasingly weak and hungry Rohingya and Bangladeshi boatpeople are still afloat in the Andaman Sea and the Malacca Strait with Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia rejecting international calls for them to be intercepted and brought to safety immediately.
Declaration of Interest
Phuketwan journalists Chutima Sidasathian and Alan Morison are being sued by the Royal Thai Navy for criminal defamation and a Computer Crimes Act count over a 41-word paragraph republished from a Reuters series on Burma's Rohingya boatpeople. The series won a Pulitzer Prize.
The Royal Thai Navy is not mentioned in the paragraph. The precedent-setting military-versus-media action predates last May's Army takeover in Thailand. A trial of the two journalists resumes in July. The maximum penalty for the pair is seven years' jail.
WATCH How Trafficking Works
Phuketwan Investigative reporter Chutima Sidasathian, still being sued for criminal defamation over a Reuters paragraph: ''It's worse and worse, day by day. Nobody cares''.
http://journeyman.tv/67116/short-films/rohingya-hd.html
LISTEN The Rohingya Solution
A tragedy almost beyond words has been unfolding in Thailand, where a human smuggling network is thriving with the full knowledge of some corrupt law enforcement officers. Alan Morison of Phuketwan talks to Australia's AM program.
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2015/s4231108.htm
Much respect for the continued coverage, especially considering you're possibly looking at a max sentence of 7 years. Weaker people would have been silenced by now. Let's hope the UN can have some effect. Well, let's hope local officials come up with the correct review of the situation. But failing that ...
Posted by James on May 17, 2015 00:04