Police are working with Interpol and Aseanapol to track down a syndicate believed to be linked to the recent boat tragedy involving migrants in waters off the Malaysia-Thailand border.
Kedah police chief Adzli Abu Shah said that initial information suggested the syndicate may have been operating in Malaysia and in several neighbouring countries.
“The D3 Division (of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants) under the Bukit Aman Criminal Investigations Department is collaborating with Interpol and the Asean police.
“We will track down the syndicate and provide any details obtained... we will monitor the progress,” he told a press conference in Alor Setar today.
He added that during interrogation, survivors of the incident claimed they had been assembled at five locations between Baitadung and Teknaf, near the Bangladesh-Myanmar border, to board a vessel operated by the syndicate.
Adzli said the syndicate’s modus operandi was to gather as many migrants as possible and load them onto a vessel at maximum capacity before setting sail.
“The vessel would anchor in a channel between the two countries and would only set sail at full capacity, in this case, about 300 people. The journey usually takes around two weeks,” he revealed.
The victims claimed that payments to the syndicate were only made by their family members upon their arrival in Malaysia.
Police also found handwritten notes from the survivors, containing phone numbers believed to be linked to the syndicate’s agents.
Left to steer boats
Adzli said interrogations of the 14 survivors of the incident confirmed that all of them were migrants and not members or agents of the syndicate.
The survivors also claimed that five individuals, believed to be members of the syndicate, were operating the mothership they were aboard.
The victims claimed that they were transferred to two smaller boats upon reaching waters near the Malaysia-Thailand border and continued their journey without the syndicate members.
The incident, in which a boat carrying more than 70 migrants capsized in waters off Langkawi, has so far claimed 29 lives, with 14 others found safe.
- Bernama
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