PHUKET: The Mayor of Pedang Besar has been arrested and accused of being a leading human trafficker in southern Thailand as a large-scale investigation continues.
Mayor Banyong Pongpon and two police are in custody with a total of 29 arrest warrants issued so far.
Since last weekend's discovery of bodies in a camp near Pedang Besar, close to the Malaysian border, a total of 31 bodies have been removed or exhumed from four camps in the jungle.
The bodies are believed to belong to Rohingya and Bangladeshi boatpeople who died of hunger or disease or were beaten to death while in the hands of traffickers.
One survivor, Anuzar, 28, told Phuketwan exclusively from his hospital bed earlier in the week that eight brokers controlled one camp where he and up to 1000 others were held at any one time.
''Most of us have been beaten or abused,'' said Anuzar, who had been held for nine months. ''In the camp, we were never able to get enough food or water.''
He is now being held in a secret location as a prime witness against traffickers in Thailand.
Another person with a knowledge of the trade in people says as many as 80 percent of the camps could have been in jungle on the Malaysian side of the border.
Thirty-eight senior police, Immigration officers and Marine Police who are suspected of having knowledge of the trafficking have been transferred to Bangkok, away from the south and the Andaman province of Ranong.
Searches at abandoned camps where Rohingya and Bangladeshis were also held on the Andaman holiday coast uncovered three bodies earlier this week, one of a woman believed to have been heavily pregnant when she died.
Authorities believe the boatpeople have all arrived in Thailand and been secretly kept in open pens in as many as 45 mangrove-covered Andaman islands before being transferred by road to the southern jungles, where as many as 60 camps are alleged to have been set up.
It remains unclear how thousands of boatpeople were transported hundreds of kilometres by road without detection over the space of several years.
''Heads will roll,'' Thaikland's Commissioner-General of Police, General Somyot Poompanmoung, told Associated Press today as the investigation continued.
Thailand was relegated last year to Tier 3, the lowest level on the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons register, and seems likely to languish there this year.
Halting the flow of Rohingya south seeking sanctuary is only possible if the Government of Burma ceases its tacit ethnic cleansing, which pushes the unwanted and stateless Muslim men, women and children into the sea.
Police from Thailand and Malaysia are to meet at a seminar on human trafficking and other issues on Phuket next week.
Mayor Banyong Pongpon and two police are in custody with a total of 29 arrest warrants issued so far.
Since last weekend's discovery of bodies in a camp near Pedang Besar, close to the Malaysian border, a total of 31 bodies have been removed or exhumed from four camps in the jungle.
The bodies are believed to belong to Rohingya and Bangladeshi boatpeople who died of hunger or disease or were beaten to death while in the hands of traffickers.
One survivor, Anuzar, 28, told Phuketwan exclusively from his hospital bed earlier in the week that eight brokers controlled one camp where he and up to 1000 others were held at any one time.
''Most of us have been beaten or abused,'' said Anuzar, who had been held for nine months. ''In the camp, we were never able to get enough food or water.''
He is now being held in a secret location as a prime witness against traffickers in Thailand.
Another person with a knowledge of the trade in people says as many as 80 percent of the camps could have been in jungle on the Malaysian side of the border.
Thirty-eight senior police, Immigration officers and Marine Police who are suspected of having knowledge of the trafficking have been transferred to Bangkok, away from the south and the Andaman province of Ranong.
Searches at abandoned camps where Rohingya and Bangladeshis were also held on the Andaman holiday coast uncovered three bodies earlier this week, one of a woman believed to have been heavily pregnant when she died.
Authorities believe the boatpeople have all arrived in Thailand and been secretly kept in open pens in as many as 45 mangrove-covered Andaman islands before being transferred by road to the southern jungles, where as many as 60 camps are alleged to have been set up.
It remains unclear how thousands of boatpeople were transported hundreds of kilometres by road without detection over the space of several years.
''Heads will roll,'' Thaikland's Commissioner-General of Police, General Somyot Poompanmoung, told Associated Press today as the investigation continued.
Thailand was relegated last year to Tier 3, the lowest level on the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons register, and seems likely to languish there this year.
Halting the flow of Rohingya south seeking sanctuary is only possible if the Government of Burma ceases its tacit ethnic cleansing, which pushes the unwanted and stateless Muslim men, women and children into the sea.
Police from Thailand and Malaysia are to meet at a seminar on human trafficking and other issues on Phuket next week.
A alleged corrupt mayor and police, who would imagine.
Posted by slickmelb on May 8, 2015 13:59