Small-scale people smuggling reported in Myanmar

An estimated 1,000 refugees have been smuggled out of camps in Myanmar since September, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

Vivian Tan, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said those being smuggled out of the camps were likely a mixture of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis.

"That brings to some 32,000 the total number of estimated departures [last] year," she said.A large-scale movement of Rohingya in Myanmar’s Rakhine state had not appeared by the end of 2015, despite the beginning of sailing season.

Chris Lewa from the Arakan Project — an NGO working to improve the situation for Rohingya — told ucanews.com that the only movement tracked by the end of 2015 were five boats that had embarked from Maungdaw and Chittagong in September.

"We do not expect large movements because the smuggling network has been disrupted but I guess there may be a few boats here and there leaving anyway," she said.

The scale of the Rohingya refugee crisis was revealed in May after authorities in Thailand clamped down on smuggling routes, leaving thousands of migrants abandoned at sea. (Courtesy of ucanews.com)