Police find new human traffickers' camp as Thailand probes collusion of police, officials

A forensic police officer collects items left at an abandoned migrant camp on Khao Kaew Mountain near the Thai-Malaysian border in Padang Besar, Songkhla province, southern Thailand, Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Police have found a recently abandoned camp on a forested hillside in southern Thailand believed to have held human trafficking victims, days after the grim discovery of 26 bodies at a separate location exposed a thriving human smuggling network. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (The Associated Press)

prev next

Forensic police officers collect items left at an abandoned migrant camp on Khao Kaew Mountain near the Thai-Malaysian border in Padang Besar, Songkhla province, southern Thailand, Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Police have found a recently abandoned camp on a forested hillside in southern Thailand believed to have held human trafficking victims, days after the grim discovery of 26 bodies at a separate location exposed a thriving human smuggling network. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (The Associated Press)

A Thai Border patrol police officer walks behind a pair of jeans left at abandoned migrant camp on Khao Kaew Mountain near the Thai-Malaysian border in Padang Besar, Songkhla province, southern Thailand, Tuesday, May 5, 2015. Police have found a recently abandoned camp on a forested hillside in southern Thailand believed to have held human trafficking victims, days after the grim discovery of 26 bodies at a separate location exposed a thriving human smuggling network.(AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit) (The Associated Press)

Police have found a recently abandoned camp on a forested hillside in southern Thailand believed to have held human trafficking victims, days after the grim discovery of 26 bodies at a separate location exposed a thriving human smuggling network.

A police commander who visited the new camp Tuesday said the discovery "means the traffickers are still on the run and taking people with them."

Authorities say the two camps near the Thai-Malaysia border are believed to have been used by a transnational network that smuggled minority Muslims from Myanmar and migrants from Bangladesh, abused them and held them captive until their families could pay ransoms.

The finding has embarrassed Thailand, which is already under pressure from the United States and the European Union to crack down on human trafficking.

https://www.foxnews.com/world/police-find-new-human-traffickers-camp-as-thailand-probes-collusion-of-police-officials