“Sold Like Fish” I. AT SEA: ABUSES ON HUMAN-TRAFFICKING SHIPS IN THE BAY OF BENGAL Tens of thousands of Rohingya and Bangladeshi nationals boarded ships off the coast of Myanmar and Bangladesh from 2012 to 2015 believing they would be transported directly to Malaysia. Human traffickers working as part of a transnational criminal syndicate promised security, lucrative employment opportunities, and other benefits to lure men, women, and children onto the ships. Instead of transporting people to Malaysia and fulfilling their promises, traffickers confined “passengers” on overcrowded ships in deplorable conditions and under threat of death. Many Rohingya died or suffered serious abuse at the hands of human traffickers at sea. Traffickers repurposed large, medium, and small-sized fishing vessels in order to transport Rohingya and, later, Bangladeshis across the Bay of Bengal from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Thailand and Malaysia.1 Survivors and witnesses described to the Commission and Fortify Rights that traffickers operating the vessels were primarily Burmese, Rohingya, Rakhine, Thai, and Malay. Thailand’s criminal court also identified Thai, Myanmar, Bangladeshi nationals as well as Rohingya traffickers.2 In May 2015, traffickers abandoned an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 survivors of trafficking on ships at sea when governments in Southeast Asia cracked down on the trafficking trade and refused to allow “passengers” to disembark, indicating the magnitude of the trade at the time.3 DECEPTION “We were supposed to be going to Malaysia, not Thailand.” —“Noor Wai,” 15-year-old Rohingya woman, Penang State, Malaysia, October 2014 From at least 2012 to 2015, traffickers in Myanmar’s Rakhine State and Bangladesh worked as members of a transnational criminal syndicate in Malaysia and Thailand to deceive men, women, and children into boarding ships. Rohingya survivors of trafficking believed they would be transported to 1 Fortify Rights, internal report on human trafficking case, trial monitoring notes, Rachada Criminal Court, Human Trafficking Division, Bangkok, Thailand, May 12, 2016. See also, Fortify Rights interviews with human traffickers and human trafficking survivors, 2013-2015. 2 Ibid. 3 Fortify Rights interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors, 2013-2015. The Commission interviews with eyewitnesses and survivors, 2017. See also, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Regional Office for Southeast Asia, Mixed Maritime Movements in Southeast Asia, 2015, https://unhcr.atavist.com/mmm2015 (accessed on March 24, 2019); “Malaysia and Thailand Turn Away Hundreds on Migrant Boats,” The Guardian, May 14, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/14/malaysia-turns-back-migrantboat-with-more-than-500-aboard (accessed in March 22, 2019).