By CS Thana

BANGKOK

 The Thai police officer in charge of a crackdown on human smuggling that led to the arrest of several senior figures has fled the country and is seeking refuge in Australia.

Rights group Fortify Rights released a statement Thursday quoting Police Major General Paween Pongsirin as saying that his life was in “grave danger” and that his investigation was repeatedly halted by high-ranking government officials.

“If we were able to continue the investigation, I think we might find more connections between higher-level officials and the human trafficking trade,” he said.

After arriving in Australia, Pongsirin told ABC’s 7.30 program Thursday, "I worked in the trafficking area to help human beings who were in trouble… but now it is me who is in trouble."

Pongsirin, who led the anti-trafficking crackdown that followed the discovery of corpses buried at a camp in the country's south, had resigned from the force last month after he was forcefully transferred to the region -- the same area where many trafficking ringleaders are living.

"There are good soldiers but the police and the military are involved in running the human trafficking,” he told ABC on Thursday. “Unfortunately the bad police and the bad military are the ones that have power."

After announcing his resignation, he had told Phuketwan, “I have been placed in a very awkward position… My first priority is to protect my life and the lives of my family. I worked hard for the benefit of the country.”

Pongsirin had added that his investigation unit had been disbanded and the probe wound up despite the fact that there are still “senior people in uniform” who have not been brought to account for their roles in human smuggling.

Last May, Pongsirin began a crackdown on human trafficking networks after 26 corpses, including of Muslim Rohingya, were found at an abandoned camp in Padang Besar district, close to the Malaysian border.

Since then, more than 150 arrest warrants have been issued and over 90 suspects detained, among them a provincial head and other local politicians, military officers including an army general, civilians and police officers.

“This trial is a test of Thailand’s commitment to end human trafficking, and the prognosis isn’t looking good,” Amy Smith, executive director of Fortify Rights, said in Thursday’s statement. “Paween and other investigators should be supported to combat human trafficking in Thailand, not be forced into hiding.”

In July, Thailand was ranked as a Tier 3 country, along with Syria and Eritrea, in the United States State department Trafficking in Persons report (TIP).

It is the second consecutive year Thailand has been given the lowest possible ranking.