Human traffickers and the Rohingyas
MALAYSIAN rights campaigners after six years of investigation found that a transnational human-trafficking syndicate in 2012-2015 traded more than 170,000 Rohingya people that generated USD50 to USD100 million a year. The victims of human trafficking were subject to murder, extermination, enslavement, deportation or forcible transfer, imprisonment, torture, and rape, as part of a widespread and systematic attack at sea and in the camps of Thai and Malaysian borders. According to newspaper reports, the traffickers are powerful enough to handle local politics, law enforcers, and border and coast guards in the countries to run their business.
The horrific picture of trafficking Rohingyas comes out when as some 750,000 Rohingyas fled textbook example of genocide in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August 2017. On April 30, 2015, the Thai authorities discovered more than 30 bodies in a mass grave in a makeshift camp near the Malaysian border. Subsequently, Malaysian police discovered 139 graves and 28 suspected human-trafficking camps in the border. The discoveries led to a crackdown against human traffickers only to find another crisis in the sea where some 5000 to 6000 victims of human trafficking were found drifting in rickety boats. After initial reluctance, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia rescued them.
The report revealed that traffickers piled hundreds and thousands of Rohingya refugees into repurposed fishing vessels and deprived them of adequate food, water, and space. Traffickers murdered several captives while many committed suicide. In the Thai and Malaysian jungle camps, traffickers provided their captives with three options: raise upwards of $2,000 in exchange for release, be sold into further exploitation, or die in the camps.
The recent Malaysian investigation has exposed how vulnerable Rohingyas and Bangladeshis are to fall in the trap of human traffickers. It illustrated a brutal picture of human trafficking, like the slave trade two centuries before — inhumane and lawlessness at sea.
The horrific picture of trafficking Rohingyas comes out when as some 750,000 Rohingyas fled textbook example of genocide in Myanmar’s Rakhine State since August 2017. On April 30, 2015, the Thai authorities discovered more than 30 bodies in a mass grave in a makeshift camp near the Malaysian border. Subsequently, Malaysian police discovered 139 graves and 28 suspected human-trafficking camps in the border. The discoveries led to a crackdown against human traffickers only to find another crisis in the sea where some 5000 to 6000 victims of human trafficking were found drifting in rickety boats. After initial reluctance, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia rescued them.
The report revealed that traffickers piled hundreds and thousands of Rohingya refugees into repurposed fishing vessels and deprived them of adequate food, water, and space. Traffickers murdered several captives while many committed suicide. In the Thai and Malaysian jungle camps, traffickers provided their captives with three options: raise upwards of $2,000 in exchange for release, be sold into further exploitation, or die in the camps.
The recent Malaysian investigation has exposed how vulnerable Rohingyas and Bangladeshis are to fall in the trap of human traffickers. It illustrated a brutal picture of human trafficking, like the slave trade two centuries before — inhumane and lawlessness at sea.
