Illegal boat journeys from Myanmar and Bangladesh have decreased significantly in the year since Thailand launched a crackdown on human trafficking, but the root cause of the problem still festers, an activist fighting for Rohingya Muslim rights told BenarNews in an interview.
A year ago Sunday, the discovery of graves in the jungles of southern Thailand that contained the remains of people trafficked from those two countries triggered a crackdown by the Thai government against human smugglers.
A Thai maritime blockade on people-smuggling boats followed, which in turn precipitated a humanitarian crisis when thousands of desperate Rohingya Muslims and Bangladeshi migrants came ashore in neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia.
In Thailand, at least 90 people, including a Thai general, are now on trial on human-trafficking charges. (Courtesy of benarnews.org)
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