IV. TESTIMONY SUGGESTING OFFICIAL COMPLICITY IN HUMAN TRAFFICKING “You can look at this issue in two ways. You can look at it as brokers who might force the Rohingya to pay money to go to Malaysia or do something to abuse their rights. Or you can look at it the other way—they want to go to Malaysia. They are happy to go and to pay the broker to go to Malaysia. They run away from a violent place, from death.”246 —Thai Police Chief to Fortify Rights, Songkhla Province, Thailand, October 2013 “Those taking money are not Rohingya. They’re Thai or Malay authorities.” —Rohingya community-based aid worker, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, August 2014 Following the discovery of a mass-grave site containing 36 bodies believed to be Rohingya and Bangladeshi victims of human trafficking in Songkhla Province, Thailand on May 1, 2015, Thai authorities began an unprecedented criminal investigation. Days after the discovery in Thailand, Thai authorities arrested a Rohingya man named Anwar for alleged involvement in a humantrafficking ring.247 The investigation into human trafficking in Thailand led to the largest ever human-trafficking trial in the country.248 The Thai court tried 103 defendants for trafficking-related crimes, including several high-level government officials. The authorities accused the defendants of involvement in transporting more than 100 Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis from Myanmar and Bangladesh to Thailand, holding them in illicit camps under abusive conditions, and requiring exorbitant payments from their captives to facilitate their release and onward movement to Malaysia.249 246 Fortify Rights interview with Songkhla Police Chief, Songkhla Province, Thailand, October 7, 2013. 247 Amy Sawitta Lefevre and Aubrey Belford, “Thai Police Arrest Rohingya Man Suspected of Running Deadly Jungle Camp,” Reuters, May 4, 2015, https://www.reuters.com/article/usthailand-rohingya-trafficking-insight/thai-police-arrest-rohingya-man-suspected-ofrunning-deadly-jungle-camp-idUSKBN0NP0BL20150504 (accessed March 25, 2019). 248 Panu Wongcha-um, Patpicha Tanakasempipat, Aukkarapon Niyomyat, “Thai General, Provincial Politicians Found Guilty in Trafficking Trial,” Reuters, July 19, 2017, https://www. reuters.com/article/us-thailand-trafficking/thai-general-provincial-politicians-foundguilty-in-trafficking-trial-idUSKBN1A405O (accessed March 25, 2019). 249 The defendants faced charges for violating the 2013 Anti-Participation in Organized Crime Act, the 2008 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act, the 1979 Immigration Act, the 1947 Firearms, V. TESTIMONY SUGGESTING “Sold Like Fish”