By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Malaysia has finally received the nod from Thailand to use its territory to access suspected mass graves of human trafficking victims in a transit camp in a forest reserve.
Malaysian police received written permission from Thai authorities Monday, after a meeting between the two parties on exhuming the remains found along the Malay-Thai border.
Perlis state Police Chief Shafie Ismail told Anadolu Agency as many as 91 graves had been identified in the particular area, which is not accessible from the Malay side.
"We would start to exhume bodies in Lubuk Sireh on Wednesday. Lubuk Sireh can only be accessed from Thailand, "he said in a telephone conversation on Monday
“The transit camp which we are talking about is far from our current base in Wang Kelian, where we have retrieved some bodies. Operations at Wang Kelian have ended and we [police and forensics] will rest until Wednesday.”
Malaysia has detained around ten policemen on suspicion of involvement in a human trafficking scandal that has led to thousands of Muslim migrants trapped on boats in Southeast Asia’s seas.
The officers were held for their alleged role in the killing of trafficking victims at the smuggling camp near Malaysia’s border with Thailand.
On May 1, a trafficking camp was discovered on the Thai side of the border, which lead to authorities clamping down on people smuggling in the country.
Subsequently, many smugglers left their victims on boats at sea, or dumped them on Malaysian or Indonesian shores.
