(Recasts to add comment from U.S. State Department)
By Amy Sawitta Lefevre
BANGKOK, July 19 (Reuters) - Thailand's navy denied on
Friday a Reuters report that its personnel were involved in a
lucrative smuggling and trafficking network that exploits
minority Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution in Myanmar.
The Reuters investigation, citing people
smugglers and Rohingyas who made the journey, found that Thai
naval security forces were involved in the smuggling of Rohingya
Muslims. They have fled Myanmar, also known as Burma, in sharply
growing numbers over the last year following outbreaks of
religious violence at home.
The smuggling network, centred on the west coast of southern
Thailand, transports thousands of Rohingya mainly into
neighbouring Malaysia, a Muslim-majority country the Rohingya
view as a haven from persecution.
"There is no truth to the allegations," Wipan Chamachote, a
spokesman for the Royal Thai Navy, told Reuters. "We've found no
indication of abuse by our staff in regards to Rohingya that
enter the country, nor has there been any financial transaction
for the purposes of human trafficking."
He added it was possible those interviewed mistakenly
identified the navy, but said he was not implying that other
Thai security forces were involved in the smuggling.
In addition to the Royal Thai Navy, the coastal seas are
patrolled by the Thai Marine Police and by militias under the
control of military commanders.
On Friday, the U.S. State Department called on Thailand to
investigate the allegations surfaced by Reuters.
"We have seen the reports," said deputy spokeswoman Marie
Harf. "We urge the Thai government to conduct a serious and
transparent investigation into the matter. We remain deeply
concerned about the safety of and humanitarian conditions for
vulnerable communities in Burma, including refugees and asylum
seekers on Burma's borders and elsewhere in the region."
Thailand has faced international pressure for failing to
crack down on human trafficking. An annual U.S. State Department
report, monitoring global efforts to combat modern slavery, has
for the last four years kept Thailand on a so-called Tier 2
Watch List, a notch above the worst offenders, such as North
Korea. A drop to Tier 3 can trigger sanctions, including the
blocking of World Bank aid.
Earlier Friday, Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra
ordered the Labour Ministry to crack down on those involved in
human trafficking, but made no reference to the allegations made
against the navy.
"What Reuters found should prompt Prime Minister Yingluck to
order a serious investigation into these allegations," said Phil
Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch. "But to
date, they have resulted in low-level investigations that seemed
more oriented to covering things up than getting to the bottom
of the situation."
FISHING INDUSTRY'S ROLE
Reuters interviews with refugees and smugglers found that
Rohingya who can't pay for their passage are handed over to
traffickers, who sometimes sell the men as indentured servants
on farms or into slavery on Thai fishing boats.
There, they become part of the country's $8 billion
seafood-export business, which supplies consumers in the United
States, Japan and Europe.
The Thai government says it is serious about tackling human
trafficking, but no minister has publicly acknowledged that
slavery exists in the fishing industry.
"The Thai fishing industry remains resolutely irresponsible,
and since they are influential in political circles, they have
been able to stymie reformers who want to take on the industry's
business practices," said Robertson of Human Rights Watch.
Democratic reforms in Myanmar have led, paradoxically, to an
unleashing of ethnic and sectarian violence there. The number of
Rohingyas fleeing by sea from Myanmar, and neighbouring
Bangladesh, reached 34,626 people from June 2012 to May of this
year - more than four times the previous year, says the Arakan
Project, an advocacy group that has studied Rohingya migration.
Arakan says at least 800 people, mostly Rohingya, have died
at sea after their boats broke down or capsized in the past
year.
Myanmar - a majority Buddhist country - says the Rohingya
are Muslim migrants from Bangladesh. A 1982 Citizenship Act
excluded Rohingya Muslims from a list of 135 designated ethnic
groups, effectively rendering them stateless.
(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak and Lesley
Wroughton.; Editing by Stuart Grudgings and Robert Birsel)
http://www.information.myanmaronlinecentre.com/update-1-thai-navy-denies-allegation-of-rohingya-muslim-smuggling/
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