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SLAVE TRADE SLAVE MUTINY: The Bangladesh Coast Guard rescued over 300 human trafficking victims crammed aboard a fishing trawler on June 11 after they mutinied against their captors. REUTERS/BANGLADESH COAST GUARD Men and women are being abducted and taken to ships anchored in international waters off Bangladesh that act as prisons as trafficking becomes increasingly lucrative. Exposing Asia’s Brutal Slave Trade BY AMY SAWITTA LEFEVRE AND ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL SPECIAL REPORT 1 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE BLOODY AFTERMATH: Six people were killed and 30 sustained bullet wounds in a gun battle during the June 11 mutiny before the men being held were rescued and taken back to St. Martin’s island in Bangladesh. REUTERS/BANGLADESH COAST GUARD PHANG NGA, THAILAND, OCTOBER 22, 2014 Testimonies from Bangladeshi and Miae and four other men who were held on Rohingya survivors provide evidence of the same ship as him described being kept hen Afsar Miae left his home a shift in tactics in one of Asia’s busiest in near total darkness and being regularly near Teknaf in southern human-trafficking routes. In the past, evi- whipped by guards. Two men from another WBangladesh to look for work dence showed most people boarded smug- boat said they were forced to sit in a squat- last month, he told his mother, “I’ll see you gling boats voluntarily. Now people are ting position and that the hatch to the hold soon.” He said he expected to return that being abducted or tricked and then taken was only opened to remove dead bodies. evening. to larger ships anchored in international Miae and 80 other men were abandoned, He never did. waters just outside Bangladesh’s maritime starving and dehydrated, on a remote island When he reported for work at a house boundary. by their captors, who appear to have fled for on the outskirts of Teknaf, a man there It’s unclear exactly how many people fear their operation had been exposed, ac- gave him a drink of water. Soon, his eyelids are being coerced onto the boats. But seven cording to two local Thai officials who were sagged and his head started spinning. men interviewed by Reuters who said they involved in rescuing the men in Phang When he awoke, it was dark. He had were taken by force described being held Nga, located just north of the popular tour- lost all sense of time. Two Bangladeshi men until the boats filled up with hundreds of ist island of Phuket. then forced him and seven others onto a people in what are effectively floating pris- “Their conditions were beyond what a small boat and bound them. ons. Two of the men were taken to traffick- human should have to go through,” said “My hands were tied. My eyes were ing camps in Thailand. Jadsada Thitimuta, an official in Phang blindfolded,” said Miae, 20. Nga. “Some were sick and many were like “EATING LEAVES” The boat sailed through the night until skeletons. They were eating leaves.” it reached a larger ship moored far offshore. The experiences of these men recall the More than 130 suspected trafficking vic- Miae was thrown into its dark, crowded trans-Atlantic slave trade of centuries ago. tims, mostly Bangladeshis but also stateless hold by armed guards. He and his fellow Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar, captives survived on scraps of food and have been found in Phang Nga since Oct. dirty water, some of them for weeks. Some were sick and many 11, according to Thailand’s Ministry of The ship eventually sailed toward were like skeletons. They were Social Development and Human Security. Thailand where, as Reuters reported last year, eating leaves. Prayoon Rattanasenee, the acting governor human-trafficking gangs hold thousands of of Phang Nga province, said that interviews boat people in brutal jungle camps until rela- Jadsada Thitimuta conducted by police, rights groups and his tives pay ransoms to secure their release. Local official in Phang Nga own people revealed that the victims were SPECIAL REPORT 2 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE “brought by force. Many were drugged but we don’t know the exact number,” he told Reuters. Evidence indicates that many of the boats appear to be from Thailand. The ab- ducted men recalled ships with either Thai flags or Thai-speaking crews. In June, six people were killed and dozens injured when a mutiny broke out in Bangladeshi waters on what the Bangladesh Coast Guard de- scribed as a “Thai trawler” trafficking hun- dreds of men to Thailand. The Bangladesh Coast Guard told Reuters it was aware of trafficking ships lurking just outside Bangladesh’s territo- rial waters. Intercepting them wasn’t easy, said Lieutenant Commander M. Ashiqe Mahmud. “At night they enter our waters, take DRUGGED AND ABDUCTED: Afsar Miae taking food at a government shelter in Phang Nga. He told the people and again cross the boundary,” Reuters he was drugged in Bangladesh and woke up on a slave ship. REUTERS/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA. he said. “It is very difficult to identify those ships at sea.” Ashiqe said the coast guard was inter- At night they enter our children, said he was kidnapped. “I never cepting smaller boats that were leaving waters, take the people and again thought I would leave Bangladesh,” he said, Bangladeshi shores with people to feed cross the boundary. It is very sitting in a government shelter in Phang Nga. the larger ships. A report in August by the That’s a change. In the past, many impov- United Nations refugee agency UNHCR difficult to identify those erished Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar said that in the first half of the year, ships at sea. and Bangladesh voluntarily boarded small, Bangladeshi authorities reportedly arrested local fishing boats heading across the Bay “over 700 people (including smugglers and Lieutenant Commander M. Ashiqe Mahmud of Bengal in the hope of reaching Muslim- crew) attempting to depart irregularly by Bangladesh Coast Guard majority Malaysia where they could find sea from Bangladesh.” work. Smuggling, done initially with the The Royal Thai Navy, which patrols the guards were aboard, said Miae. consent of those involved, differs from traf- coastline with the Marine Police Division, The men were forced to squat for much ficking, which involves entrapment, coer- also said it was aware people were being of their journey and sometimes had their cion and deceit. held captive on ships off its coast. “The hands and feet bound with rope or cloth. Thai authorities say the existence of truth is they use fishing boats to transport The guards routinely beat them with sticks the boats in which people are being held people and the bottom of the boat becomes or whipped them with rubber fan belts. against their will is a response to the more like a room to put the people [in], but it Food was a handful of rice a day, or strenuous efforts they are making to com- seems like a commercial fishing boat,” said nothing at all. What little drinking water bat trafficking. Police operations have led to Royal Thai Navy spokesman Rear Admiral they received was contaminated with sea the rescue of 200 to 300 trafficking victims Kan Deeubol. water. “We tasted it in our hands and it was in the past six months, said Police Major The ship on which Miae was held set salty,” said Muhammed Ariful Islam, 22, a General Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, who is in sail with its human cargo for Thai waters Bangladeshi fruit vendor who was on the charge of counter-trafficking operations for four days after he was taken aboard. Others same boat as Miae. immigration police in southern Thailand. interviewed by Reuters say they spent up to “The traffickers have become more so- A NEW WEAPON six weeks in the hold of the ship anchored phisticated and cautious, partly because of in the Bay of Bengal. Fourteen armed Miae, who left behind his wife and three Text continues on page 5 SPECIAL REPORT 3 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE Dhaka CHINA BANGLADESH MYANMAR RAKHINE STATE VIETNAM (where most Rohingya live) Teknaf Naypyitaw Sittwe LAOS Bay of Yangon Bengal THAILAND 100 miles Bangkok 100 km CAMBODIA THE BAY Andaman Gulf of OF BENGAL Sea Thailand SLAVE TRADE Phang Nga Since Oct. 11, more than 130 suspected Phuket human traicking victims — mostly Bangladeshis, but also stateless Rohingya Muslims from western Myanmar — have been found in Phang Nga, just north of the popular Thai tourist island of Phuket. Strait of Malacca MALAYSIA Source: Reuters. SPECIAL REPORT 4 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE Downgraded RECALLING ORDEAL: In June, the U.S. State Department Muhammed Ariful Islam, downgraded Thailand and Malaysia to 22, cries as he talks about the lowest “Tier 3” status, ranking them how he was kidnapped, among the world’s worst centers of forced onto a boat and human traicking for failing to meet “the taken to a remote island minimum standards for the elimination in southern Thailand. of traicking.” REUTERS/ATHIT TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS RANKING PERAWONGMETHA. Tier 1 Malaysia Thailand Tier 2 Tier 2 watch list Tier 3 '07 '08 '09 '10 '11 '12 '13 '14 the Thai government policy to crack down,” the Arakan Project, a Rohingya advocacy he said. group. “There are always five to eight boats The country’s military government says waiting in the Bay of Bengal. And the bro- TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS it is beefing up cooperation with neigh- kers are desperate to fill them.” TIER 3 COUNTRIES bouring Malaysia and has registered more Matthew Smith, the executive direc- Asia than one million illegal migrant workers tor of Fortify Rights, an organization that North Korea Thailand to prevent them falling prey to traffickers.

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