47 On April 30, 2015, Thai authorities announced they had discovered a mass grave in a remote camp near the Malaysian border containing 36 bodies, presumed to be victims of human trafficking.139 Less than one month later, Malaysian authorities announced the discovery of 139 graves in 28 suspected human-trafficking camps in Wang Kelian, Malaysia.140 In addition to the uncovered graves, Fortify Rights visited alleged unmarked gravesites in Songkhla Province in southern Thailand believed to contain bodies of trafficking victims.141 At least one alleged gravesite visited by Fortify Rights appeared to be a burgeoning construction site.142 Witnesses testified to the Commission that they saw bodies thrown into large holes in an area believed to be in Wang Kelian.143 Survivors of human trafficking interviewed by Fortify Rights also described the existence of numerous different mass gravesites in human-trafficking camps in Thailand and Malaysia between 2013 and 2015. For example, “Noor Begum,” 20, told Fortify Rights of mass graves nearby the human-trafficking camp where she was held: “When [people in the camps] died, the dallals put them in a common grave . . . The bodies were put in one large grave beside the mountain.144 In some cases, traffickers buried the bodies, and in other cases, the traffickers forced other captives to bury the bodies. “Mohammed T.,” 18, described his involvement in burying bodies in the camps. He said: If one [person] died, we buried one. If two died, we buried them together. We’d bury the dead bodies in the morning, and sometimes when we came back, another [group of people] would have died. In one-and-a-half months, during the first twenty days, no one died, but then they started to die. I buried dead bodies in both camps. I buried two dead bodies close to the border. The dallal told me to go [bury the bodies]. Three or four came with me, the dallals and guards. There were some Thai guards who had pistols.145 Mohammad T. said he buried Rohingya men ranging in age from 30 to 40 from Sittwe, Maungdaw, and Buthidaung townships in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. He shared with Fortify Rights the names, ages, and other bio data of some of the deceased he buried, which is on file with Fortify Rights.146 “Abdul Yasin,” 17, also described burying bodies in the human-trafficking camps: Thirty-one people died at sea [on the journey from Myanmar to Thailand]. Seven people died in the camp. Two people died just beside me, [age 25 and 19 from Rakhine State’s Maungdaw Township, Myanmar] . . . They had pains in their chests, and then they died. We washed the dead bodies, and after that, we wrapped the bodies with a little bit of white cloth that we could find and then buried the bodies, two in the same grave. It was difficult to dig because there were rocks, so we just dug a little bit and covered the bodies.147 139 Testimony of Matthew Smith, Executive Director of Fortify Rights, House Committee on Foreign Affairs. See also, Fortify Rights, “Thailand: Government Officials Convicted of Human Trafficking, Organized Crime,” news release, July 20, 2017, https://www.fortifyrights.org/publication-20170720.htm (accessed March 25, 2019). 140 Beh Lih Yi and agencies in Wang Kelian, “Malaysia Migrant Mass Graves: Police Reveal 28 sites, Some with Multiple Corpses,” The Guardian, May 25, 2015, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/25/malaysia-migrant-massgraves-police-reveal-139-sites-some-with-multiple-corpses (accessed March 25, 2019). 141 Fortify Rights site visits, Songkhla Province, Thailand, 2014 and 2015. 142 Ibid. 143 See, for example, the Commission interview with W19, Penang State, Malaysia, May 23, 2017. 144 Fortify Rights interview with “Noor Begum,” #18, Pahang State, Malaysia, August 13, 2014. See also, subsequent interview with Noor Begum, #20, Pahang State, Malaysia, August 14, 2014. 145 Fortify Rights interview with #43, Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014. 146 Ibid. 147 Fortify Rights interview with #44, Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014.