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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.
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.
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Trafficking syndicates seeking to avoid crackdown by Thai and Malaysian authorities hold Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants at sea
Rohingya migrants on a boat drifting in Thai waters. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images
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