Matters

people in Bangladesh, simply because the
process of abusing captives in the jungle
camps in southern Thailand has become so
lucrative.
Large sums are usually extorted from the
captives’ relatives before the victims are
taken across the border to Malaysia.
But if what these boatpeople say is true,
they have all been kidnapped solely for the
purpose of extorting ransoms. They haven’t
wanted to flee to Malaysia.
The claims and the theory have yet to
be proven by independent authorities.
But a Phuketwan reporter who helped to
interview 25 of the 53 men into the early
hours of today said that the stories were
consistent - and nightmarish.
An electrician who said he was snatched by
a gang of men after being called to repair
a house in Cox’s Bazaar said: ‘’I worry about
my mother. I feed her medicine every day.
Since I was kidnapped, she will have had
nobody to give her the medicine.’’
A fisherman enticed to repair a net on
a stranger’s boat said he was grabbed
and had his wrists tied. He said: ‘’I was
kidnapped. I don’t have relatives in
Malaysia. I wasn’t planning on leaving
Bangladesh in this way. My wife and
children are there and will not know where
I am.’’
A farmer who said he went to repair a roof
was locked inside with four others. He said:
‘’They bound my arms behind my back and
took us all at night to a small boat, then
onto a bigger boat.’’
A 17-year-old boy said he was a
student with no intention of quitting his
schoolwork. He said: ‘’I went to update
my telephone credit at a shop and a man
grabbed me and put his hand over my mouth. I ended up
in the boat. Mt parents will be wondering where I am.’’
A market delivery man from Cox’s Bazaar, recently arrived
from Rakhine state in Burma (Myanmar), said: ‘’Four or five
men persuaded me to go to a house for a better job. I went
with them and was beaten and then taken to the boat.’’
A Bangladesh tourist from another town who went to visit
the sea said he was offered a guided tour. ‘’The guides
took me onto a boat. Before I could say anything, they
kept taking me out to sea. They told me I was going to
Malaysia.’’
The men said they were transported in the airless and
windowless hold of a fishing boat for five days, south from
Cox’s Bazaar to a jungle-covered island off Thailand’s coast.
Local municipal authorities, acting on a tipoff, arrested
the 53 men as they were being held in a plantation by the
roadside near Takuapa about 4am yesterday.
Two Thai men, local people, have been arrested and are
being held pending an outcome to the human trafficking
application in court.
One of the boatpeople showed whiplash wounds on his
neck that he said were the result of abuses in the secret
jungle camp off the coast. Others said that there were 310
people on the boat from Cox’s Bazaar.
Some boatpeople had been trucked south before them,
and more, still being held on the island, were to follow.
Authorities raided the secret island camp late yesterday and
found it disused and empty.
Most of the men apprehended yesterday are Rohingya
living in a UNHCR camp in Bangladesh.
Turkmenistan fortifies border to keep
militants out
Specialists are warning of a possible new threat to
Turkmenistan and to Central Asia, in light of Taliban
Border Security Matters
www.borderpol.org page 3