axis
Fair Use Notice
  Axis Mission
 About us
  Letters/Articles to Editor
Article Submissions
RSS Feed


Malaysia finds mass graves of suspected migrants Printer friendly page Print This
By Staff Writers, Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
Sunday, May 24, 2015

Mass graves believed to contain bodies of hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh have been found in Malaysia, the country's home minister said.

Police discovered 30 large graves in two locations in the northern state of Perlis, which borders Thailand, local media reported on Sunday.

Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi confirmed the unearthing of a mass grave near 17 human trafficking detention camps in Padang Besar.

The camps were abandoned when officers got there, he said.

The Star newspaper reported on its website that nearly 100 bodies were found in one grave on Friday.

Al Jazeera's Florence Looi, reporting from the capital Kuala Lumpur, said identification and verification of the remains was ongoing.

It was not clear if the bodies were members of a Muslim minority from Myanmar known as Rohingya, an official said.

Northern Malaysia is on a route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingya who say they are fleeing persecution, and people from Bangladesh seeking work.

Smugglers have also used southern Thailand. The Utusan Malaysia newspaper said police believed the discovery had a connection to mass graves found on the Thai side of the border earlier this month.

Twenty-six bodies were exhumed from a grave in Thailand's Songkhla province on May 1, over the border from Perlis, near a camp with suspected links to human trafficking.

More than 3,000 migrants, most of them from Myanmar and Bangladesh, have landed on boats in Malaysia and Indonesia this month after a crackdown on trafficking in Thailand.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak on Thursday pledged assistance and ordered the navy to rescue thousands adrift at sea.


Source URL


Printer friendly page Print This
If you appreciated this article, please consider making a donation to Axis of Logic. We do not use commercial advertising or corporate funding. We depend solely upon you, the reader, to continue providing quality news and opinion on world affairs.Donate here




Featured
AxisofLogic.com© 2003-2015
Fair Use Notice  |   Axis Mission  |  About us  |   Letters/Articles to Editor  | Article Submissions |   Subscribe to Ezine   | RSS Feed  |