Daily Times

There is nothing more heart wrenching than hundreds of bodies dumped into mass graves like human trash — nameless, faceless and stateless people whose stories the world will never know, discarded like damaged cargo. According to the Malaysian police, 28 human smuggling camps have been discovered near the country’s northern border. Recently, 30 mass graves have been uncovered in Malaysia, following a similar discovery across the border in Thailand. The police suspect that the graves are of the victims of human trafficking. According to official reports, autopsies will be performed on the bodies to determine the cause of death. These graves are probably of migrant refugees, fleeing the intense persecution that they face in Myanmar. Myanmar does not accept the Rohingya Muslims as true Burmese and they are forced to seek refuge elsewhere, only to be turned away by the local governments, border and coastal police.

The Thai and Malaysian governments’ crackdown on human traffickers has in some ways exacerbated the humanitarian crisis, compelling traffickers to use sea routes more often and avoid the overland conduits. The sea routes are more perilous for the migrants than land routes; they are crammed below deck in small boats without proper sanitation and often go without food or water for long periods of time. Given the subhuman conditions of these boats, it is not surprising that many refugees do not survive the journey or that human traffickers bury them in mass graves or dump them at sea to avoid getting caught. Although the exploitation and abuse of this long-suffering community at the hands of smugglers needs to be brought to an end, law enforcement action against human trafficking does not solve the problem. The plight of the Rohingya people is one of Southeast Asia’s festering sores and this humanitarian crisis should be handled with the appropriate sensitivity. These people have nowhere to go and are forced to turn to human smugglers to escape persecution and possible death. The International Organisation for Migration has estimated that 25,000 Southeast Asians took to the sea to seek better fortunes or to escape conflict. The United Nations Human Rights Council and UN High Commissioner for Refugees should take notice of these unfortunate people and work with the related governments to find a solution. Last week, the Indonesian and Malaysian governments agreed to host migrants and accept migrant ships temporarily, as long as the international community helps in eventually repatriating them. It seems that the discovery of these graves has convinced Southeast Asian governments that they can no longer ignore the issue but it is cruel and insensitive and against international law on refugees to force them to return to places where their lives are threatened.. *