Malaysia charges 4 Thais over mass graves and human trafficking camps that shocked the nation in 2015

Four Thai nationals were charged on Friday under Malaysia’s anti-trafficking laws in connection with the 2015 discovery of mass graves believed to be of Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshis held in camps in a hilly jungle area on the country’s border with Thailand.

Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said in a statement that the four were among 10 Thai citizens the government had sought for extradition in 2017 over the tragedy at Wang Kelian in northern Perlis state that had shocked the nation. Following cooperation with Thai authorities, he said the four men were caught and extradited to Malaysia on Thursday to face charges.

In May 2015, Malaysian police announced the discovery of a cluster of abandoned jungle camps used by human traffickers in Wang Kelian and later exhumed 139 bodies from mass graves there. The findings followed a similar discovery earlier the same month by Thai police, who unearthed 36 bodies from shallow graves on the Thai side of the border.

The discoveries exposed hidden networks of jungle camps run by human smugglers, who for years held people captive while extorting ransoms from their families. Most of those who fell victim to the trafficking networks were members of Myanmar’s persecuted Rohingya minority or impoverished migrants from Bangladesh, part of a wave of people who fled their homelands in search of better lives.

The four men were escorted on Friday by armed police to a lower court in Perlis where they were charged with human trafficking, which carries up to 15 years imprisonment upon conviction, local media reported.