Photo: AFP
Police have discovered about 200 Muslim refugees at a secret camp in the kingdom’s deep south, officials said Thursday, describing the case as “unprecedented.”
Thailand has long been a hub for people trafficking, with thousands of Rohingya boat people from neighbouring Myanmar believed to have passed through the kingdom in recent years.
The refugees are believed to be ethnic Uighur’s from the China’s Xinjiang region. They were detained after a raid on a camp in a mountainous rubber plantation on Wednesday night in the southern province of Songkhla.
They identified themselves as Turkish, likely to avoid deportation back to China, where Uighurs have long complained of persecution. Thailand has reportedly notified the Chinese embassy in Bangkok of the group.
“They came as families and looks like they wanted to go somewhere else because they kept their belongings ready to move,” he said, adding that several suspected minders had fled during the raid.
It was unclear how they arrived in Thailand. Police were waiting for an interpreter to help question the detainees, who have not yet been charged with any crime.
In January Thailand detained more than 500 Rohingya refugees after a raid on a suspected people-trafficking camp in its deep south, a Muslim-dominated region plagued by a nearly decade-long insurgency.
Thousands of Rohingya, described by the United Nations as among the world’s most persecuted minorities, have fled sectarian violence in western Myanmar in rickety boats since 2012, mostly believed to be heading for Malaysia.
Thailand said last year it was investigating allegations that some army officials in the kingdom were involved in the trafficking of Rohingya.
Story: AFP/tr
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