Gruesome: The graves of over 50 migrants (pictured) have been discovered at a human trafficking camp in southern Thailand, where smugglers abandoned them to die
Caged: The traffickers kept their captives in dirty bamboo cages (pictured) until they received full payment for their transport across the border to Malaysia, but many died there
The Daily Mail, UK
written by Jay Akbar
Friday May 1, 2015
The decaying corpses of as many as 50 migrants are being pulled out of the ground in remote woodland in southern Thailand where a gruesome grave site inside a human-trafficking camp has been discovered.
The graves reportedly belong to migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh who were brought to the Songkhla province near Malaysia, a popular stop off for traffickers before they take their human cargo across the border and beyond.
Most of the dead are Rohingya Muslim refugees who starved to death or died of disease awaiting payment for ransoms so they could be smuggled into Malaysia, according to local reports.
A local hospital has confirmed that at least one Bangladeshi man has miraculously survived the fate that befell as many as 50 of his fellow refugees.
The harrowing site was discovered in Sadao district at an abandoned camp for trafficked refugees known locally as 'boat people'.
When traffickers are forced to escape the dirty temporary camps by raiders, they leave the sick and disabled behind to die, local website Phuketwan has said.
A rescue worker who arrived at the gruesome scene shortly after its discovery confirmed there were at least 32 graves and four exhumed bodies were on their way to hospital for an autopsy.
Sathit Thamsuwan added the deceased 'bodies were all decayed' and the lone survivor had been taken to nearby hospital in Padang Besar where he is in a stable condition.
He told Phuketwan that 200 soldiers, policemen and rescue workers had to climb through the mountainous jungle terrain for 50 minutes to reach the graves.
The country's Deputy Police Chief said the makeshift shelter the man escaped from had a bedroom and canteen for the cruel human traffickers who may have detained as many 300 migrants there.
General Aek Angsananont told the Bangkok Post: 'This location helps traffickers transport the migrants at anytime and it is difficult for officers to arrest them.'
A senior official from Sadao district has said: 'Military and border patrol police have now cordoned the area off so we can bring forensic officials to the site.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar are thought to make the perilous journey by sea to southern Thailand - a well worn trafficking route.
They are described by the United Nations as one of the world's most persecuted minorities, having been forced to escape deadly unrest in Myanmar's Rakhine state since 2012.
Thailand has been criticised for pushing boatloads of Rohingya entering its waters back out to sea, and for holding migrants in overcrowded facilities.
But the ruling Junta claims it has taken steps to combat trafficking since June, when the United States said Thailand was failing to tackle modern-day slavery.
In January, the country's confirmed more than a dozen government officials - including senior policemen and a navy officer - were being prosecuted for involvement or complicity in human trafficking.
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