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Human Traffickers Setting Up Squalid Hotel Boats For Stranded Migrants (Picture)
Thousands of Bangladeshi and ethnic Rohingya migrants are being held in huge cargo ships by human traffickers in the Andaman Sea, according to testimony collected from survivors.
First-hand accounts indicate that trafficking syndicates trading in vulnerable migrants have responded to a recent crackdown by authorities in Thailand and Malaysia by holding their victims in large vessels close to international waters, where they are ransomed for their freedom in return for money from relatives.
Thailand human trafficking death toll far greater than feared, claims rights group
The practice, which has been accompanied by violence and other abuses, mirrors the fate of victims held in camps recently discovered by officials in southern Thailand and Malaysia, where dozens of mass graves have yet to be unearthed according to survivors who spoke to the Arakan Project. There is one crucial difference, however: the bodies of the dead were dumped overboard into the ocean, with no hope of being recovered.
“The traffickers will not abandon their business, so they have now started putting ‘camps’ in the sea,” said Chris Lewa, founder of the Arakan Project. “Since the end of February, we now have thousands and thousands of people stuck at sea, and I think we already have more death than even at the camps in Thailand.”
A survivor from one ship who agreed to be interviewed on condition of anonymity described an ordeal of violence and sexual abuse accompanied by demands for ransom payment. She described a ship containing “six storeys in total: three above deck, three below. The men and women were separated.” morehere
