people be brought in these camps they be
handed a telephone and they be told you
need to raise $2,000 for your freedom or
we will either kill you or you will die
here
I'm a fisherman if again those where the
innocence they also have leave with some
government officials the disco nervous
has different activities how high up do
you think the corruption goes good job
people bye good luck
in the spring of 2015 the world was
stunned when hundreds of our hinder
refugees and some Bangladeshi migrants
were stranded at sea in horrific
conditions on overpack boats abandoned
by human traffickers after a partial
crackdown by the Thai government the
boats were at first that ID entry by all
countries in which they sought refuge it
was a small glimpse at the plight of
what the United Nations has called one
of the most persecuted minorities in the
world and a glaring reminder of just how
unwanted oranga are today the flow of
row hinge are trying to escape my mr by
sea has slowed in the wake of the
crackdown very little however is being
done to get out what's causing the roar
honza to leave in the first place
this is Mahmoud he's 17 years old and
was rescued from a trafficker after
spending 12 days on a boat last summer
his parents paid the equivalent of four
hundred thirteen dollars after they were
promised he'd be taken to a job in
Malaysia walk us through the process of
when you decide to go how it works and
how you end up on the big boat are they
about iodine and helping to well they
did it
he's a telethon to me you guys gave me a
holiday not one time on stream Inari
hopefully the mother a wedding girl how
was a colony Keeley on anomaly God be
really gotta go to be on a re what were
the conditions like on the on the boat
yet India's holiday building without the
building where Queen Dermot a money take
and then fedora the tango they won't
look - yeah your mighty who better go to
that our bottle good all that out it yup
you do a total of a girl I already in
the room are P gonna be she's aa
groggily don't but the till the mud to
do my buddy desert mine candles in there
Turner hardened or let me know about
there I don't know Mary doctor Khan
violating the love money get aborted not
ollie when you were on the big boat did
you think at one point that you were
gonna die you know you better they deal
tomorrow out of money with the other jet
I didn't my mother Maradona public more
than one article money Mahmoud is just
one of the tens of thousands of oranga
who have been smuggled a traffic since
2012 the United Nations High
Commissioner for Refugees
puts the number as high as a hundred
sixty thousand we're here at the western
edge of the camps facing the bay of
bengal and these three ships are here
these are used by traffickers the first
step in the trafficking process people
are loaded into these boats before
they're taken about 20 miles of the sea
with our giant boats waiting those boats
are loaded extremely full and then they
make the journey to Malaysia or Thailand
the trafficking operations are actually
quite complex wealthy investors many of
them in Bangkok Bangladesh or Kuala
Lumpur will purchase a large boat these
boats are sent to the western coast of
our kind state where they anchor
offshore in international waters close
to sittwe or further north in Hmong Dao
the ship captain or other operatives
within the syndicates contact local
brokers and we're Hindu communities who
round up and recruit people to fill the
boat they're paid by Commission and they
tell Despereaux engine that they'll
travel safely to Malaysia where they'll
have a job waiting there were hinge are
put on small boats payments are made to
local authorities so they can get
through the small boats keep coming
until the big boat is dangerously over
packed if you're the first group to
board you could be stuck in horrific
conditions until the ship fills up which
can take weeks once there were hinges
get on everything is taken from them
sometimes they're given different color
bracelets when they get on a ship each
color represents a different trafficker
so if a row hinge is wearing a green
bracelet they are now owned by the
trafficker who was assigned the color
green the Syndicates may share the boats
but the human cargo belonged to
different traffickers once the large
boats are full they make their way to
Thai waters and dock throughout southern
provinces near the Malaysian border to
unload their property in some cases
vehicles operated by Thai officials are
alleged to have escorted them in others
Thai immigration authorities are alleged
to have taken royal hinging into custody
and then sold them to traffickers once
these ships made their way to Thailand
enroute to Malaysia usually this human
cargo and they were regarded as human
cargo would be herded into these remote
camps in the jungle held in the
situation of captivity and they would
essentially be held for ransom
they'd be handed a telephone and they'd
be told you need to raise $2,000 for
your freedom or we will either kill you
or you will die here or another option
would be to sell them off to a situation
of slave labor this was a cold
calculated business in the trade of
human beings men women and children and
they were making so much money that they
had little regard for their human cargo
that was dying and in some cases in in
large numbers southern Thailand where
the mass graves were found in the spring
of 2015 has been a trafficking hot spot
where well-established gangs and
criminal enterprises have connected with
human traffickers we met with a police
informant familiar with the human
trafficking system his identity has been
concealed for his safety we know that
there have been some mass graves
discovered in southern Thailand are
there do you think there are more mass
graves around here are there more people
that have been killed that bad sure some
of the government offices they informed
local authority to stop digging location
because if they did many groups then
international community and also the
other countries they can see the some of
the evidences with the bodies so it will
not be good for time repetition so you
know of other undiscovered mass graves
that are around here you know king dude
led a if we walk in the mumping we
just walk up on a dead body Matt Smith's
organization fortify rights has been
documenting mass graves and unmarked
burial sites throughout southern
Thailand he took us to one of the sites
when raha either escaped from the
trafficking syndicates or in some cases
are found on the side of the road
they end up in the hospital if they die
in the hospital the hospital calls a
local community representative
essentially who picks up the bodies and
disposes of them
add another gravesite nearby Smith told
us why there's been very little
follow-up by authorities and you think
there are sites like this pretty much
all over the south yeah absolutely these
these types of grave sites and actually
some mass graves that are much bigger
dot the landscape throughout this entire
region is anyone keep like are the
authorities is anyone keeping track of
these bodies and these people and is
anyone letting their relatives know
casualty recording has been almost
completely lacking and the reason is to
hide evidence to hide what happens
precisely you can see right here these
are unmarked graves just with with a
stone next to them um they look like
they were recently buried
I count six how do you guys generally
find out about these sites are about
bounty situations speaking to survivors
speaking to eyewitnesses in some cases
we've been meeting with government
officials as well government officials
who are trying to do the right thing
we've also spoken with investigators in
the Thai police department who have
indicated that that they did have
information about mass graves but the
investigation didn't proceed the UN has
an estimate of roughly two hundred
million dollars was earned in human
trafficking in Southeast Asia
specifically with regard to this
population as well as some Bangladeshis
since 2012 who's profiting off this
transnational criminal syndicates are
profiting off of this uh government
officials not only in Myanmar but also
in Thailand have been profiting off of
this people have have become hugely
wealthy off of this trade in human
beings and no one's really doing much
about it that's right and as such some
governments such as the Thai government
right now are attempting to convince the
world that they are taking the situation
of human trafficking very seriously
there's an ongoing trial right now
against 91 people in some cases
government officials who have been
charged with
offenses related to the crime of
trafficking
unfortunately there are huge problems
with that trial it appears as though
it's a show trial essentially it has not
even touched the tip of the iceberg
those currently on trial are said to be
mostly low-level offenders
while some higher-ups have been charged
sources told us most of the kingpins are
not being pursued
so the real big boss is the real
kingpins they've escaped
yes nicotine be negotiated we play look
an open case like evidences and we give
breath and also some of this women
fatigue and those were the big investors
they also have to leave quit some banana
fishes they do business so this low my
office has deported evidence but there
is evidence to arrest the kingpins
they're just not using that evidence
they're not going after them yes we're
very disappointed because game theorist
even escaped you're not arrested and
it's not just high authorities that are
alleged to be working with the
trafficking games authorities of Miami
are also colluding vice news obtained a
recorded phone call between an activist
in the end gone and a trafficker
implicating the me mr Navy and military
officials and taking bribes to allow
traffic another regula we are ready
I don't remember also monitoring the
merriest of
running water as it is we've just
arrived in Bangkok from all the research
we've done all the people you've spoken
to it seems that they're still number of
traffickers that are here in Bangkok
sort of hiding in plain sight
one of them has good speak to us he's an
alleged trafficker but it's sort of a
really murky world a lot of these
alleged traffickers actually work with
the police and inform on some of their
competition they also claim that they're
humanitarians that are that are helping
out trafficked and smuggled people so
it's really hard to tell what exactly is
going on but he's agreed to meet with us
as long as we protect his identity a
source later informed us that this man
was reputed to be a smuggler and not a
trafficker it may seem like splitting
hairs but the traffickers use violence
and deception whereas smugglers simply
move people illegally across borders
what can you tell us about the
trafficking situation right now it seems
to us like things have slowed down for a
second the new swamp Paul II I buy an e
many top one yucky common Deadpool yeah
I thought my mom come on have you been
involved in in helping the government or
police at all deal with the trafficking
situation flew by Walter what you tell
me we can you drew people have told us
that you were involved in trafficking
how do you respond to that allegation
indeed Armenia kick this wahala what
went wrong comedies on that I will be
information hey you know how high up do
you think the corruption goes good jump
people very good mom
the corruption is so widespread that the
senior police investigator on the case
has fled Thailand fearing for his life
Major General Pauline park seon is
currently seeking political asylum in
Australia after implicating top
officials in the Thai government
military and police force involved in
human trafficking what happened after
was a relatively sophisticated cover-up
what does that mean does that mean that
there was no massacre that meaning that
the UN didn't have enough facts and was
not able to ascertain enough facts that
something actually occurred they saw
children being killed there were body
parts in wells the government that had
just turned corner was now perhaps
complicit in crimes against humanity