exclusive
Burmese illegal immigrants have claimed that they were held for ransom by human traffickers after being deported by the Malaysian authorities into Thailand.According to several Burmese migrants interviewed by malaysiakini , human traffickers operating from southern Thailand have captured them in order to extort money for their release.
For an additional payment, the traffickers can smuggle the deportees back into Malaysia.
The Malaysian authorities often deport Burmese illegal migrants across the country's northern border in Sungai Golok, Kelantan, without informing their counterparts in Thailand.
Waiting on the other side of the river are human traffickers ready to nab them.
"There are two known gangs of smugglers in the south of Thailand. Their men will bring their trucks and wait for the Burmese at the other side of Sungai Golok," said Brahim*, a Burmese activist based in Kuala Lumpur.
"They are then taken to the smugglers' camps in the jungle where they are closely watched by armed guards."
These camps, said Brahim, are hidden within the dense jungles in southern Thailand to prevent the Burmese from escaping.
"We cannot leave the camps. The armed guards are always around and they often beat people," said Thun, a Burmese Rohingya who had ended up captive more than once after being deported from Malaysia.
Many of the Burmese are asylum seekers from ethnic minority groups who are unable to return to their own country because of ethnic and religious persecution by the Rangoon military government.
Some, like the Chin and Karen minorities, have fled because years of conflict between separatist groups and the military had created an oppressive atmosphere of fear and insecurity in their home land.
Meanwhile, Muslim Rohingyas who hail from Burma's Arakan state are persecuted for their religious beliefs and face forcible expulsion from their ancestral lands.
No choice
According the Burmese migrants, the deportees must pay their captors a hefty sum of money so that they could sneak back into Malaysia.
An individual wishing to return to Kuala Lumpur is charged RM1,000 for the journey.
However, for those who cannot afford the price are sold as slave labour on Thai fishing boats.
"These people have to work five to six months to earn their way out," said Yusuf, another Rohingya immigrant.
Women faced an even darker fate. A number of them are abused by their captors and later sold to work in brothels.
(* The names of persons quoted in this story have been changed to protect their identity ).
For malaysiakini subscribers only: Transported into the arms of human traffickers .
