SLAVE TRADE

SLAVE MUTINY: The 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 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 . 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. documents human rights violations in Malaysia Uzbekistan “That’s a big step,” said Sek Wannamethee, Southeast Asia, said the size of the ships Papua New Guinea a spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign being used by traffickers has increased as Affairs. business is thriving and the trafficking rings Europe, Middle East Human rights groups say the grow- are able to operate largely with impunity. Iran Saudi Arabia ing use of force is because trafficking has Kuwait Syria THAILAND’S ROLE become increasingly lucrative, not because Libya Yemen of any new measures taken by Thailand. A series of Reuters investigations in 2013 Russia Competition between a rising number of revealed the complicity of some Thai au- Africa people smugglers explains why they are re- thorities in smuggling Rohingya and in sorting to kidnapping, said Chris Lewa of deporting them back into the hands of hu- Algeria The Gambia man traffickers. Central African Rep. Guinea-Bissau DR Congo Mauritania Thailand was downgraded in June There are always five to Equatorial Guinea Zimbabwe to the lowest category in the U.S. State eight boats waiting in the Bay Eritrea Department’s annual ranking of the world’s of Bengal. And the brokers are worst human-trafficking centers, putting it Central, South Ameria desperate to fill them. in the same category as North Korea and Cuba Venezuela the Central African Republic. The same Chris Lewa of the Arakan Project month, the Thai military vowed to “pre- Source: “Traicking in Persons Report 2014”, A Rohingya advocacy group vent and suppress human trafficking,” after U.S. Department of State.

SPECIAL REPORT 5 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE

having seized power from an elected gov- ernment on May 22. Five months later, jungle camps are still holding thousands of people in remote hills near the border with Malaysia, according to testimonies from two recent escapees and a human smuggler. The men and women aboard the pris- on ships who reach Thailand are sold for $200 each to trafficking gangs, according to one of two Rohingya men interviewed by Reuters who recently escaped from the trafficking camps. “The camps are running very smoothly,” the human smuggler, based in southern Thailand, told Reuters. The smuggler, a long-time Rohingya resident of Thailand who spoke on condi- JUNGLE GULAG: Mohamad Nobir Noor, 27, a stateless Rohingya Muslim living in Bangladesh was tion of anonymity, estimated there were up held in brutal conditions at one of the trafficking camps slave traders operate in the remote jungles of to eight large camps holding 2,000 to 3,000 southern Thailand. REUTERS/ANDREW R.C. MARSHALL people at any one time. The two men who recently escaped de- scribed the brutality in the camps. One The camps are running suspected of engaging in the slave trade, of them told Reuters he witnessed camp smoothly. he said. The “uncertain state of the law on guards gang-raping a woman. these matters,” Beckman added, meant that Police Major General Thatchai describes Human smuggler based in Thailand navies and coast guards were “usually very a vast and complex trafficking network in reluctant to arrest persons outside their ter- which Bangladeshis and Rohingya kid- ritorial waters, especially if they are on ships nap and trade their own people with the boundaries, in international waters, and so flying the flag of another state.” help of nationals from Thailand, Myanmar, the navy couldn’t move against them. Interviews with two Rohingya, who in Malaysia and Pakistan. “It’s transnational early October escaped from a Thai traf- WHOSE JURISDICTION? crime,” Thatchai said. ficking camp, corroborate the testimonies The United Nations refugee agency Under the United Nations Convention of the Phang Nga victims. They also sug- UNHCR confirmed the existence of “big- on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), to gest the slave ships have been operating for ger fishing or cargo vessels” that carry up to which Thailand is a signatory, each nation some time. 700 passengers across the Bay of Bengal to “shall take effective measures to prevent Mohamad Nobir Noor, 27, says he Thailand – a five- or six-day journey. and punish the transport of slaves in ships was living in an impoverished Rohingya This time of year is rush hour for smug- authorized to fly its flag.” The Navy didn’t settlement in Bangladesh, near the border glers and traffickers. October marks the respond to queries on why it wasn’t acting with Myanmar, when he was taken. One start of the four-month “sailing season,” the against trafficking ships carrying the Thai September evening last year, men with busiest time for smuggling and trafficking flag outside its territorial waters. knives and sticks forced him onto a small ships plying the Bay of Bengal. Robert Beckman, the director of the boat that sailed all night to reach a larger The Thai Navy’s Kan said most of the Centre for International Law at the vessel moored at sea. boats and crews were from Thailand and National University of Singapore, said the It would eventually hold 550 people, that patrols against traffickers had been Thai Navy would have jurisdiction over Noor estimated. increased in the country’s territorial wa- a ship flying a Thai flag in international They were guarded by 11 men with guns, ters. But Kan said the bigger boats were waters. Under UNCLOS it had a right, he said. Most were Thai speakers but one operating beyond Thailand’s maritime not an obligation, to act against someone Text continues on page 8

SPECIAL REPORT 6 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE

SALVATION: Rescued victims of a human trafficking ring pray at a government shelter in the southern Thailand town of Phang Nga. REUTERS/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA

SPECIAL REPORT 7 EXPOSING ASIA’S BRUTAL SLAVE TRADE

was Rakhine, the majority Buddhist ethnic group in Rakhine State, where communal violence since 2012 has killed hundreds and left 140,000 homeless, most of them Rohingya. About 30 of those being held were women. “There was one woman who was very beautiful,” said Noor. “The guards took her upstairs. When she came back she was crying and her clothes were wet. She didn’t say anything.” Drinking water was so scarce that Noor said he drank his own urine to survive. When someone died, a small group of men was permitted to carry the body up on deck. A quick prayer was said and then the bod- ies were thrown into the water. “For the sharks,” Noor said.

ESCAPE AND MUTINY RECOVERY: One of the more than 130 victims of a slave trading ring rests in the Phang Nga shelter. Once, Noor tried to escape by jumping Villagers found the group on a remote island after their captors abandoned them. overboard during a trip to the toilet. The REUTERS/ATHIT PERAWONGMETHA guards dragged him back in and gave him electric shocks with wires attached to the ship’s generator, he said. A record 40,000 Rohingya passed Local officials have yet to account for Usually, most passengers were too through the Thai camps in 2013, Lewa of another 190 passengers they believe came physically weak or terrified to confront the the Arakan Project said. They are held cap- on the same boat as Miae and Islam from guards. But, on at least one occasion, des- tive until relatives pay the ransom to traf- Bangladesh via the Bay of Bengal. Jadsada peration trumped fear. fickers to release them over the border in said they might already be trapped in traf- On the morning of June 11, the Malaysia, she said. ficking camps. Bangladesh Coast Guard arrived off the By early 2014, not just Rohingya but coast of St. Martin’s Island, in Bangladesh other nationalities were also ending up in Additional reporting by Serajul Quadir in waters, to record the bloody aftermath of a the trafficking camps. In a series of raids and Mohammad Nurul Islam in Cox’s high-seas firefight that followed a mutiny earlier this year, Thai police found hundreds Bazar. Editing by Peter Hirschberg and Bill aboard a Thai trafficking ship. Desperate of Bangladeshis, as well as Uighur Muslims Tarrant. for food and water, passengers had over- from China’s restive northwestern province whelmed the crew. But another trafficking of Xinjiang. ship quickly arrived and its crew opened The camps were also the likely destina- FOR MORE INFORMATION fire on the mutineers, said Lieutenant tion of the Bangladeshis rescued in Phang Andrew R.C. Marshall Commander Mahmud of the Bangladesh Nga. But something went wrong. [email protected] Coast Guard. They were brought ashore at the remote Amy Sawitta Lefevre Six people were killed and 30 sus- island in Phang Nga under cover of dark- [email protected] tained bullet injuries. Among the injured ness. Phang Nga official Jadsada says he be- Peter Hirschberg, Asia Investigative Editor were “two Thai crew members and one lieved they were about to be transferred by [email protected] Myanmar human trafficker,” according to a road to another location, but a tip-off to the Michael Williams, Global Enterprise Editor Bangladesh Coast Guard statement. authorities compelled their captors to flee. michael.j.williams@thomsonreuter

© Thomson Reuters 2014. All rights reserved. 47001073 0310. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. ‘Thomson Reuters’ and the Thomson Reuters logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of Thomson reuters and its affiliated companies.

SPECIAL REPORT 8