Arakan News Agency
A raid at a palm plantation in southern Thailand exposed a ring that trafficked Myanmar’s ethnic minority Rohingya Muslims into the country, police said on Wednesday.
Acting on a tip-off, police raided a house on a palm plantation and arrested two Myanmar Buddhist men who allegedly had detained 13 Rohingya people for extortion for over a month in Thailand’s Chumphon province, said police Maj. Gen. Warawuth Thaweechaikarn. Chumphon is about 380 kilometers (240 miles) south of Bangkok.
The relatives of Rohingya people were asked to send 50,000 baht ($1,500) to the traffickers to bring the refugees over the border to Malaysia, he said, adding that they lived in poor conditions at the plantation and that some were physically assaulted.
Rohingya face discrimination in Myanmar, where sectarian violence for nearly two years has left hundreds dead and more than 140,000 displaced from their homes. Many sought asylum and work in other countries, especially Malaysia, which has a Muslim majority.
(Source :Associated Press)
