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Easy Prey For Traffickers – Rohingya Refugees’ Vulnerability Will Only Increase From Now
Incident reports of Rohingya Refugees being trafficked or smuggled have concerningly increased last month, as multiple news sources from surrounding countries including Thailand and Malaysia announce respective crackdowns. Police General Damrongsak Kittiprapas, Thailand’s deputy national police chief, stated last month that dozens of accused Thai officers were prosecuted for their implication in human trafficking on the Thai-Myanmar border, with 33 officials of various ranks involved.
Also, Thai police announced that they have arrested 78 suspected smugglers – mostly Thais – who were involved in smuggling more than 260 migrant workers from Myanmar and other neighboring countries. On the 8th, Yangon police in Myanmar uncovered another group of 100 Rohingyas huddled together and hiding in a multi-story house for months. Last Sunday, 13 Rohingya girls in Dhaka who were promised false jobs were rescued.
ALSO READ THIS: FEARS FOR ROHINGYA STRANDED AT SEA FOR 10 DAYS, AS ENGINES FAIL AND EIGHT DIE
Unfortunately, these trafficking incidents are not new findings. The Myanmar military’s brutal crackdowns on the Rohingya Muslims that have displaced over 1 million since 2017, have powered an inexorable market for human traffickers. In 2018, the UN Migration agency reported that young Rohingya girls in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar are ‘sold into forced labor, accounting for the largest group trafficking of victims.’
This trafficking by criminal gangs forms only a part of the sex trade of Rohingya Refugees. The chain functions as far as India and Nepal, according to Amnesty International. Trafficking is on the rise in the sprawling 6000-acre camps holding at least 900,000 Rohingya who have extremely limited access to basic health and educational services. Police records from Bangladesh report that 529 Rohingya were rescued from trafficking last year in camps near Cox’s Bazar alone.
Already exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, numerous domestic and international unsettlement further cloud the situation for Rohingya Refugees. With Myanmar’s declared state of emergency and the military in complete control of the country, the refugees are fearful of returning to a country now under a military regime.
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