Thai mass grave held bodies of 26 suspected trafficking victims
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre PEDANG BESAR, Thailand (Reuters) – Dozens of police and volunteers have exhumed 26 bodies at a mass grave near a suspected human trafficking camp on a hillside deep in a southern Thai jungle, police said on Saturday. The digging site, in Sadao district in Songkhla province, yielded five bodies on Friday and 21 more on Saturday, all believed to be migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh. "A total of 26 bodies were uncovered – 24 men, one woman and one unknown," said Police General Jarumporn Suramanee, adding the operation was now completed. Illegal migrants, many of them Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar and Bangladesh, brave often perilous journeys by sea to escape religious and ethnic persecution and to seek jobs in Malaysia and Thailand, a regional trafficking hub.
