Claim Thai military trafficking Rohingya refugees

Zoe Daniel

ABC News

June 13, 2013

There are new allegations that the Thai navy is involved in the human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims trying to flee religious violence in western Myanmar. The ABC has tracked down Rohingya Muslims in Malaysia who claim they were intercepted, brutally beaten and then sold to traffickers by the Thai military.

ASHLEY HALL: There are new allegations that the Thai navy is involved in the human trafficking of Rohingya Muslims trying to flee religious violence in western Myanmar.

Earlier this year, the ABC reported eyewitness claims that the Thai military had been involved in the shooting of Rohingya who had arrived on the shores of Thailand by boat.

Now the ABC has tracked down Rohingya Muslims in Malaysia who claim they were intercepted, brutally beaten and then sold to traffickers by the Thai military.

South East Asia correspondent Zoe Daniel reports.

ZOE DANIEL: His story is frighteningly familiar. He fled religious violence and anti-Muslim sentiment in western Myanmar, but on his journey to Malaysia the boat he was on reached Thai waters and was intercepted by the Thai navy.

ZAFAR AHMAD (translated): The navy arrested us and took us to an island, they took us into a forest, then they took our clothes so we had only underwear. They beat us and asked us why we came to this country. A few days later, another boat arrived and the people on it joined us.

ZOE DANIEL: Zafar is a Rohingya asylum seeker. He says the boats then had their engines removed and, under the Thai navy's push back policy, more than 200 passengers were put back on board and towed out to sea, then left to drift.

Seemingly, one boat made it all the way to Sri Lanka, making headlines when it landed. Ninety-six people had died on the way due to lack of food and water.

His boat made it back to Thai shores, towed in by a fisherman, but then the passengers were captured and sold by villagers.

ZAFAR AHMAD (translated): We spent 12 days on the sea and 12 people died before the fishing boat helped us. Then Thai Muslims gave us food while we were in the jungle but after that they sold us.

ZOE DANIEL: Earlier this year PM revealed allegations that shots were fired and at least two asylum seekers were killed after a boatload of Rohingya was intercepted by the Thai navy off Phuket.

The navy denied shooting people who had jumped into the water in an attempt to escape, along with further allegations that the navy had sold captured Rohingya to human traffickers.

But now we've tracked down more Rohingya men who make similar trafficking claims.

AN SARRULLA (translated): The navy allowed us to the shore, they spoke Thai, I did not understand. We asked for food. I don't not know if they understood but they beat us instead.

NURUL AMIN (translated): The navy beat me the whole night and then I was handed over to some Thai people in the morning. I was beaten a lot. I was then transferred again to traffickers and they beat me almost 12 times.

ZOE DANIEL: An and Nurul are new arrivals to Malaysia. If true, their claims confirm that trafficking involving the Thai navy continues, despite repeated denials by Thai authorities.

AN SARRULLA (translated): They were in uniform. They had guns in their hands. We did not know then, but we knew about it later: that we were sold.

ZOE DANIEL: Thousands of Rohingya have been living in camps since fighting broke out between Buddhists and Muslims in Myanmar's Rakhine state last year, many heading to Malaysia because it's a Muslim country.

Thousands are also in detention in Thailand, being held in appallingly squalid conditions. The Thai government has said they can't stay more than six months.

Yet they continue to come.

Nineteen-year-old Shabin describes fleeing from Myanmar to Bangladesh, before taking a known route to a docked ship that runs a business in human cargo because it was the only way out.

SHABIN ISLAM (translated): We were beaten on the ship, it was a trafficking ship. We had to stand in the sun in the day time. We could only sit at night. If we wanted to sleep, we would be hit by a stick and wire. The traffickers tied us with rope on our necks. We, 32 people, were tied together. They were afraid we would run away.

ZOE DANIEL: The ship was eventually stopped by the Thai navy and the passengers handed over to yet more traffickers. Those who got away paid their way out. It's believed those who couldn't pay were sold on as bonded labourers.

In Bangkok this is Zoe Daniel for PM.