Malaysia govt missed clues on trafficking, villagers say

Malaysia's government has expressed shock at finding human-trafficking camps and graves near the Thai border, but for local villagers like Sani Hashim the human clues were right there in plain sight.
Sani is one of many residents of the remote area in Perlis state who say that starving illegal migrants - some bearing signs of mistreatment - have for years staggered from nearby thickly jungled hills, where a network of graves and camps was recently found.
Their accounts stand in stark contrast to those of Malaysian authorities - long accused by activists of tolerating an abusive and deadly regional human-trafficking trade - who claim the grisly discovery came as a surprise.

"I have lived here for 30 years and I have seen many Rohingya, and they are always in bad shape," said Sani, 80, referring to the Muslim Rohingya minority which flees persecution in Myanmar.
Emaciated Rohingya routinely approach his small farm to beg for food, water and clothing.
"We do what we can. And if they are not able to stand or walk, we call the authorities who take them away," he said.

Malaysian police say a total of 139 gravesites and 28 recently abandoned camps had been found, capable of housing hundreds of people.
It marked the most direct evidence yet of a brutal and large-scale human-trafficking trade on Malaysian soil.

Similar smaller sites found in Thailand in early May prompted a police crackdown there that has severely disrupted the once-steady flow of migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar, down through Thailand and across the land border into Muslim- majority Malaysia.
Malaysia's government initially denied such brutal sites could exist on its soil. "I am shocked," Home Minister Zahid Hamidi declared when announcing the discovery Sunday.
But activists say they have fed authorities evidence for years, yet nothing was done.
"In Malaysia, they've had the blinders and earmuffs on and have let these networks operate with impunity," said Amy White, executive director of anti-trafficking group Fortify Rights.

She said trafficking victims and even smugglers had years earlier told Fortify Rights about vulnerable migrants held against their will in camps or private homes in Malaysia.
"Malaysia needs to be held accountable for the abuses taking place on its soil," she said.