29 August 2016•Update: 29 August 2016
By P Prem Kumar
KUALA LUMPUR
Thailand has agreed to a formal request to extradite 10 nationals to Malaysia where they will face charges of human trafficking along the two countries' border.
Many of those trafficked were Rohingya Muslims, temporarily held at camps in Malaysia in 2015 while officials attempted a clampdown on trafficking in Thailand.
Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi told reporters Monday that the 10 were identified as the kingpins of syndicates, responsible for the mass graves of victims discovered in May 2015.
"We have placed the 10 suspects, aged between 35 and 60 years, on the most wanted list of the Malaysian police," he said after receiving Thai counterpart Prawit Wongsuwan in administrative capital Putrajaya.
Wongsuwan, who is also Thailand's defense minister, was on a one-day working visit to Malaysia, where the two men discussed the extradition, cross-border crime, an international prisoner exchange program, immigration cooperation, terrorist deradicalization and border management.
Hamidi said that during the meeting, Wongsuwan informed him that some of the suspects had been detained while others remain at large.
"I personally handed over the names to Thai authorities during my visit to Bangkok earlier this month. They have to be extradited from there to face legal proceedings in Malaysia," Hamidi underlined.
He stressed that the extradition will also further boost Malaysia's effort to fight human trafficking activities, especially along the border.
"Malaysia doesn't want to be seen as the only country involved in human trafficking activities by international observers. It is now a cross border crime."
In May 2015, Malaysia discovered 159 graves -- some housing more than one person -- at 28 illegal migrant camps in Padang Besar and Wang Kelian.
For years, the border areas between the two countries have been a resting point for traffickers bringing migrants to Southeast Asia by boat, most of them Rohingya fleeing persecution in Myanmar and economic migrants from Bangladesh.
Many of the migrants were held at the camps, while traffickers demanded ransoms from their families back home.
Since the discovery of the graves, Thai police have charged 88 people, including a general, with human trafficking, while Malaysia has detained 47 people, including four police personnel.
