Thai police rescue hundreds of Rohingya in raid on suspected traffickers' camp
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - Thai police have rescued hundreds of Rohingya Muslims from a remote camp in a raid prompted by a Reuters investigation into human trafficking, police officials said on Monday.
Police detained 531 men, women and children in Sunday's raid at a camp near the town of Sadao in the southern province of Songkhla, on a well-established route for human smugglers near Thailand's border with Malaysia. It was the first raid on illegal Rohingya smuggling camps since January 9, 2013.
The police said they were following up on a December 5 Reuters report that Rohingya were held hostage in camps hidden near the border with Malaysia until relatives pay ransoms to release them. Some were beaten and killed.
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The United Nations and the United States called for an investigation into the Reuters report, based on a two months of research in three countries, that revealed a clandestine policy to remove Rohingya refugees from Thai immigration detention centers and deliver them to human traffickers waiting at sea.
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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/27/us-thailand-rohingya-idUSBREA0Q0IU20140127
It states the slaves were mostly Muslims from Myanmar. They left after being endangered by radical Buddhists.
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