being en routed from Malaysia to Vietnam. The two girls then divulged to the ATT that more girls were kept at a location in Ipoh, Perak. The Commission immediately notified the task force of the tip-off on 3 March and as a result, the police arrested three suspects and saved 19 Shan girls and a Vietnamese on 10 March. Later, the Commission was informed that the three suspects were charged under Section 12 of ATIPSOM. The Commission appreciates the swift actions taken by the task force on the referred cases as well as the good cooperation extended in providing updates of the cases to the Commission. The Commission had requested from MAPO Secretariat the statistics on ATIPSOM cases that were investigated and charged in 2017; however, at the time of writing, the response has yet to be received. In the government’s response to the Commission Annual Report 2016 regarding the Wang Kelian mass grave case, the government informed that it has made an official request to the Thai government to extradite 11 suspects in the Wang Kelian case, and three of them were already under the custody of the Thai authorities. It is disappointing to note that there has been no further progress to the request at the time of writing this report. The Commission hopes that the government would put some efforts to ensure that the suspects are brought to justice. (v) Complaints on Business and Human Rights The obligation to respect, protect and fulfil human rights lies both on the government and private companies. Over the years, the Commission has been receiving complaints involving allegations of infringements of a wide range of human rights related to business operations including exploitation of migrant workers, employment, indigenous peoples’ rights and environmental rights. In January, a group of Myanmar CSOs submitted a complaint to the Commission regarding the environmental degradation and human rights abuses allegedly committed by a joint-venture company (JVC) between a Malaysian company and a Myanmar company, in executing the oil palm project in Tanintharyi Township, South-eastern Myanmar. The complainant claimed that the JVC did not follow the procedure to acquire the land of the communities involved for the project by not obtaining permission from 76 S UH A KA M A N N UA L R E P O R T 2 0 1 7

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