II. On Land: Abuses at Human-Trafficking Camps and Houses in Thailand and Malaysia
48
A 26-year-old Rohingya man who witnessed 17 deaths in the human-trafficking camps told
Fortify Rights: “The guards and dallals buried the people in the mountain in the first camp. They
were afraid we’d escape.”148
“Mohammed Ishmael,” 20, told Fortify Rights that traffickers buried some sick captives alive:
Some people became sick in the camps after we were there for a long time. Some were so sick
but were still alive, but they were still thrown into the mountain area [mass grave]. Some
people were sick, and the Thai [traffickers] took them, saying they would take them to the
hospital in Malaysia, but then they would throw their bodies away. I stayed for five months in
the camp . . . When people died, the guards also forced us to throw the bodies in the mountain
area. I saw others do this. It was a big mountain and very high, so the people brought the
bodies up the mountain and left them there [in a mass grave].149
In some cases, trafficking victims died in Thai hospitals or just prior to their arrival at the hospital
after escaping the human-trafficking camps or following raids on the camps by Thai authorities.
“Abdul Yasin,” 17, told Fortify Rights that traffickers left him for dead with four others in the jungle.
Eventually a Thai man and woman found him and two others, brought them food, and took them to
the Hat Yai Hospital in Thailand. The two Rohingya men with Abdul died in the hospital, and the local
Muslim community in Thailand buried them in unmarked graves in a makeshift local cemetery.150
Fortify Rights visited a government-operated hospital in southern Thailand that systematically
released unidentified bodies of human trafficking victims to members of the Rohingya and
Muslim communities in southern Thailand. Members of the Rohingya community in Thailand told
Fortify Rights that in most cases, Thai hospitals systematically referred to all victims of trafficking
as “Rohingya,” grouping Bangladeshi and Rohingya together.151 Local Rohingya community
leaders told Fortify Rights the hospital did not attempt to establish the identities of the deceased.
A Rohingya man who helped bury the bodies locally said: “They are the nameless. They are the
nameless Rohingya.”152
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT
Members of a transnational criminal syndicate operating in Malaysia and Thailand beat and tortured
nearly all Rohingya and Bangladeshi men held captive in the human-trafficking camps, according
to eyewitness and survivor testimonies collected by the Commission and Fortify Rights from 2013
to 2015. The Commission collected testimony from three Rohingya survivors who witnessed men
beat captive Rohingya in the camp in Wang Kelian.153 Fortify Rights also received evidence of sexual
violence and the rape of women in human-trafficking camps. 154
Traffickers applied abusive tactics to exert pressure on captives to obtain money from families,
friends, or others in order to escape from the abuse. For example, “Rahim Ullah,” 16, described being
tortured when he was unable to secure US$2,000 (approximately 7,000 Malaysian Ringgit) from
friends and family for his release:
148 Fortify Rights interview with #45, Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014.
149 Fortify Rights interview with #50, Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014.
150 Fortify Rights interview with #44, Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014.
151 See, for example, Fortify Rights interview with “A. Said,” Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014.
152 Ibid.
153 The Commission interview with W6, W17, and W19, Alor Setar, Kedah State, November 2016.
154 Fortify Rights interview with #49, Bangkok, Thailand, September 23, 2014. Mobile phone footage obtained and
interpreted by Fortify Rights, 2014.