29 Rohingya people found in Songkhla in two days
A total of 29 Rohingya people have been found in rubber plantations in Hat Yai and Rattaphum districts of Songkhla province on May 6-7 as police have issued fresh warrants for the arrest of 10 suspects believed to be involved in human trafficking racket.
Sixteen Rohingya immigrants who include women and children were found on May 7 in a rubber plantation in Rattaphum district which is connected with Tambon Chaloong of Hat Yai. Thirteen more were spotted in a rubber plantation in Tambon Chaloong by villagers who then alerted their headman who immediately notified Hat Yai district chief officer Mr Narongporn na Phatthalung.
All the Rohingya people have since been held in custody at Thung Tamsao police station, Hat Yai district, pending instruction from the government about how to deal with them.
Mr Narongporn said he was told by a group leader of the Rohingya people that originally there were about 30 of them who came from Myanmar on their own and they did not pay any human trafficking gang to facilitate their travel to southern Thailand.
Meanwhile, border patrol police scoured an abandoned graveyard of Muslim people in Tambon Chaloong to look for mass graves. About 30 graves were discovered by villagers said that the graves were about one year old as the area used to be a detention camp for Rohingya two years ago before it was raided by officials.
Pol Gen Aek Angsananont, deputy national police chief, disclosed that warrants have been issued for the arrest of 10 additional suspects on top of eight suspects sought by the police.
Of the 18 suspects, eleven of them are civilians and the rest are government officials who include two police officers. Four have been arrested and the fifth impounded.
It was reported that Prasit Lemleh, the vice mayor of Padang Besar municipality, who was wanted by the police has turned himself in quietly at Hat Yai district police station to face charges of human trafficking, illegal detention and kidnapping.
A total of 38 policemen attached to the immigration police, the Crime Suppression Division, marine police division and Region 8 Provincial Police Breau have been transferred for alleged negligence of duty.
Human rights commissioner Nirun Pitakwatchara has urged authorities concerned to try to determine the cause or causes of the death of Rohingya people. He also voiced support for the use of Section 44 of the interim charter to deal with officials who were involved in the human trafficking racket.
Members of the National Human Rights Commission will travel to Padang Besar on May 13 to meet with representatives of the civic group and to collect first-hand information.