KUALA LUMPUR: There is no evidence yet to show that Malaysians were part of the syndicate believed to be carrying out human trafficking activities in Thailand.
Home Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said on the raid by Thai authorities at a camp in a remote jungle in southern Thailand on May 1, that the ministry was still waiting for the details.
“Although it happened at the Malaysia-Thailand border we cannot freely enter the area,” he told Bernama.
Newspapers yesterday reported that Malaysians were involved in abuse and wrongfully confining at least 800 foreigners at the camp set up by the syndicate.
Thai authorities had earlier found a mass grave at Sadao, Songhkla, about 50 metres from the camp. Twenty-six bodies believed to be those of Bangladeshi nationals and Muslim Rohingyas had been recovered at the grave and efforts to retrieve more remains are ongoing.
Thailand’s Ninth Division Deputy Police chief Maj Gen Pol Phuttichat Akkachan said the cause of death would be determined when post-mortem was carried out.
The Songkhla Nakharin Hatyai University Hospital which conducted post-mortem on the exhumed bodies, also took DNA samples before they were re-buried at the Kampung Pru cemetery in the Hatyai district.
Thousands of Rohingya were estimated to have been incarcerated along the Thai-Malaysia border and were either waiting for ransom money from their families or to be turned into labourers, according to the authorities.– Bernama