BANGKOK: A Myanmar man and his Thai wife, allegedly involved in a human trafficking syndicate linked to transit camps and mass graves found in 2015 in Wang Kelian, Perlis, were arrested in Bangkok on Thursday.
Thailand’s assistant national police chief Surachate Hakparn said the 55-year-old man and his wife, who were carrying Malaysian passports, fled from Thailand to Kuala Lumpur in 2015.
They apparently changed their names to evade police detection.
“The couple admitted that they had changed their names. However, they denied trafficking the Rohingya in 2015,” he said at a press conference here.
Surachate said arrest warrants were issued for the couple for human trafficking and money laundering in 2015.
“The couple were involved in trafficking Rohingya from Rakhine in Myanmar, with transit in Thailand, before entering Malaysia.
“They were also involved in money laundering through their tour bus company,” he said.
Surachate thanked the Malaysian police for their cooperation in getting the couple arrested.
“To date, Thai police have issued arrest warrants to 153 people, including Thai army officers and local officials, allegedly involved in human trafficking in 2015. We have arrested 124 of them,” he said.
In May 2015, police discovered 139 graves in 28 temporary camps run by a human trafficking syndicate in the jungle near the Thai-Malaysian border in Wang Kelian.
Similar graves were also found near the border in Thailand.
The victims were said to have come from Myanmar and Bangladesh in search of jobs.
In 2019, a royal commission of inquiry (RCI) was held to examine the evidence linked to the transit camps and mass graves. A total of 48 witnesses were called to testify. - FMT
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