The number of migrants leaving Myanmar and Bangladesh by boat in the past four months has plummeted because of Thai and Bangladeshi crackdowns on human smugglers, the United Nations and a rights activist said on Friday.
Thai police launched a sweeping campaign against smuggling gangs in May following the discovery of 30 bodies in graves near a human-trafficking camp close to the Malaysian border.
The police operation led to traffickers abandoning 4,000 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh at sea, sparking a chaotic round of "maritime ping-pong" as Indonesian, Malaysian and Thai navies pushed migrant boats away from their shores.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have fled poverty and persecution in western Myanmar since religious violence erupted there in 2012.
Most have headed for Muslim-majority Malaysia, but many have made landfall first in southern Thailand or been intercepted and held for ransom in camps hidden deep in Thailand's jungles. (Courtesy of Reuters)
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