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M’sian officials colluding with human traffickers were ‘unaware of killings’

KUALA LUMPUR — The government officials suspected of plotting with human traffickers who detained migrants in camps in the state of Perlis were probably motivated by money, did not know about the killings and were not masterminds, said two Malaysian ministers yesterday.

A police forensic team carrying a body bag with human remains that were dug up near an abandoned human-trafficking camp at Bukit Wang Burma, close to the Thai border, in northern Malaysia on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

A police forensic team carrying a body bag with human remains that were dug up near an abandoned human-trafficking camp at Bukit Wang Burma, close to the Thai border, in northern Malaysia on Wednesday. Photo: Reuters

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KUALA LUMPUR — The government officials suspected of plotting with human traffickers who detained migrants in camps in the state of Perlis were probably motivated by money, did not know about the killings and were not masterminds, said two Malaysian ministers yesterday.

Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Shahidan Kassim said the officials could have been motivated by “quick money” and only had small roles to play in the people-smuggling racket, after authorities discovered 139 graves in 28 abandoned camps in Perlis near the Thai border.

“Many of them had small roles to play in allowing the syndicate to operate, but they did not know about the killings and torture,” Mr Shahidan was quoted saying by Malaysian newspaper The Star. “Now they must be having nightmares.”

But the minister did not explain how he came by such knowledge.

In a separate statement yesterday, Deputy Home Minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said Malaysians were not the masterminds of human trafficking activities.

“They might have knowledge of the trafficking activities and could be accomplices but they are not the organisers,” he said. Dr Wan Junaidi told reporters the authorities believe 139 people were buried in the graves, with each grave containing one corpse.

He also clarified that only two police officers have been detained over suspected human trafficking, instead of 12 as he told reporters on Wednesday.

Authorities believe the mass graves and trafficking camps found in a remote area in Perlis are linked to the graves that were previously discovered in southern Thailand and thought to contain the bodies of Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants.

The traffickers are believed to have abandoned the camps, which were suspected to hold migrants for ransom while the smugglers extorted more money from their families for their release, after Thailand recently cracked down on people-trafficking activities.

Human-rights groups and activists said the area on the Thai-Malaysia border has been used for years to smuggle migrants and refugees including Rohingya Muslims, a long-persecuted minority in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar.

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi on Wednesday said initial investigations showed Malaysian enforcement officers had collaborated with traffickers with links spanning Thailand, Bangladesh and Myanmar.

“We suspect some of them. We are also working with the Forestry Department in terms of enforcement at the boundary between Thailand and Malaysia,” he told reporters.

The Bar Council yesterday called for a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) to investigate the Perlis mass graves and the people-smuggling camps, saying that the government cannot disclaim responsibility.

Malaysian Bar president Steven Thiru said it was “perplexing” that local authorities had failed to detect the camps, which are believed to have been there for five years. He added that the RCI must immediately investigate claims of complicity by enforcement agencies.

“It is inconceivable that an extremely sensitive area such as our international border with Thailand could have been left so unpatrolled and unmonitored, as to permit these ‘death camps’ to have been set up,” Mr Steven said in a statement.

“Moreover, the circumstances in which our law enforcement agencies in charge of border protection were unable to detect the existence of these ‘death camps’ have to be investigated,” he added.

Mr Steven said while it was commendable that the authorities had made arrests in relation to the death camps, only an RCI could address Malaysia’s human-trafficking problem holistically.

“A purely internal inquiry will be insufficient, hence the need for a comprehensive RCI,” he said. “Further, as current mechanisms such as the Enforcement Agencies Integrity Commission have failed to provide sufficient oversight, new and more directly focused systems must be implemented.”

Thailand will today host a regional meeting in which more than a dozen nations will discuss long-term solutions to the Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrant crisis. AGENCIES

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