No Slave Camps And Mass Graves Of Rohingya Illegals In Malaysia - Home Ministry

PUTRAJAYA (Malaysia), May 11 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Home Ministry on Sunday refuted media reports that claimed the existence of holding camps and mass graves of illegal ethnic Rohingya migrants on the Malaysian side of its border with Thailand. Its secretary-general Alwi Ibrahim said investigations carried out by the Royal Malaysian Police found no such camps or graves on the Malaysian side of the border. Following the discovery of "death camps" in southern Thailand, there have been news reports saying that there might be similar slave camps housing illegal immigrants on the Malaysian side of the border. Alwi said Malaysia was targeted as a destination for the smuggling of the foreign migrants via Thailand which was the transit country for the illegal activity. The Home Ministry wished to clarify that the current scenario at the Malaysia-Thailand border was more inclined towards migrant smuggling activity compared to human trafficking, he said in a statement issued Sunday. Alwi said the migrant smuggling activity involved cross-border movements and most of the illegals including ethnic Rohingyas were willing to be in cahoots and paying the crime syndicates for smuggling them into Malaysia via Thailand. He said the illegals were, on their own, willing to be smuggled and were hence not victims of the crime. Alwi said smuggling of migrants including illegals involved syndicates from Malaysia and Thailand who had been making a lot of money from this activity for a long time and which was a challenge for the Malaysian enforcement agencies to stem. He said the condition of the Malaysia-Thailand border area also made it an easy route for syndicates to carry out their migrant smuggling activity. --BERNAMA