IV. Testimony Suggesting Official Complicity in Human Trafficking 82 When I arrived in Ranong [immigration detention center], after two months, the [abdominal] pain started. [State agency redacted] sent me to the doctor but because I couldn’t explain to them properly, I wasn’t cured. After another two months, UNHCR visited and I spoke with them about my suffering. Then, [the U.N. officials] sent me again to the doctor. After that, I received some medical care and experienced a little relief. They kept me there for two days and gave me a drip and then sent me back to detention. From UNHCR, it was a man and woman and an interpreter. I spoke to the interpreter. [The UNHCR representatives] were maybe European or American. The doctor was also from UNHCR, I think. I gave them my name and age and other information.271 Abdul R. did not meet with UNHCR again. Five months later, Thai authorities transferred him to the custody of human traffickers, who tortured and sold him. He said: On three separate occasions, the [state agency redacted] came to question me, asking me where I wanted to go. They said they would send me back to Myanmar, but I twice refused. When they came a third time, they said, “You must accept to go back to Myanmar, otherwise we will not release you. If you accept, we will not send you to Myanmar but to Malaysia. If you do not agree, we will not release you from here.” I agreed. They made me sign a paper saying that I agreed to go back to Myanmar. Then they sent me to the mountain near the Malaysian border to the dallals. [The traffickers] demanded 6,500 Malaysian Ringgit (approximately US$2,000) from me.272 A 26-year-old Rohingya man similarly described meeting with UNHCR in Thai immigration detention in 2014 before the authorities handed him over to traffickers: UNHCR met us often for six months, and then the [state agency redacted] told us that UNHCR promised they would do something. But UNHCR did nothing. We were informed that UNHCR would do nothing, so [state agency redacted] said we would all be sent back to Myanmar. After that, we were put on a boat and taken by a broker. The brokers were waiting by the boat. They crossed the river and handed us over to another boat. We were taken by the broker from Ranong [in southern Thailand] and transferred from one boat to another boat. Then a car took us to Padang Besar [in Songkhla Province, Thailand]. Then we ended up in the dallal camp. The situation there was very bad.273 “Mohammed Ishmael,” 20, said Thai authorities arrested him and handed him back to human traffickers multiple times. He said: We were arrested [from the human-trafficking camps] three times by the Thai [state agency redacted]. There were three or four [officers], all wearing ordinary clothes. Whenever the [state agency redacted] raided the camp, the guards were informed and would disappear. Then, we had to run away. The guards negotiated with the [state agency redacted] for our release. The first time, [the traffickers] paid 35,000 Thai Baht (US$1,090; 3,800 Malaysian Ringgit) and the second time 15,000 Thai Baht (US$470; 5,444 Malaysian Ringgit) and then third time 13,000 Thai Baht (US$405; 1,400 Malaysian Ringgit). That was for the entire group.274 Mohammed Ishmael said he witnessed Thai state security forces negotiate with human traffickers and take cash payments from traffickers in exchange for custody of him and others arrested during the raids: When we were arrested, the [state agency redacted] tied our hands together in groups of seven to ten people. They tore longyis [clothing traditionally worn by men in Myanmar and 271 Fortify Rights interview with #55, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, September 27, 2014. 272 Ibid. 273 Fortify Rights interview with #45, Songkhla Province, Thailand, September 17, 2014. 274 Fortify Rights interview with #50, Bangkok, Thailand, September 23, 2014.