PADANG BESAR – The area at the Malaysia-Thailand border around Bukit Wang Burma, Wang Kelian near here, which was found to be the site of a mass grave and human trafficking camp in 2015, is being constantly monitored by the police.
Perlis police chief Datuk Muhammad Abdul Halim said the General Operations Force (GOF) and VAT 69 are regularly patrolling the area on foot to ensure there are no illegal migrant entries and no new camps or graves are built.
“So far no new graves were detected and reports show no signs of new immigrant camps at the border,” he said .
He spoke to reporters after carrying out an inspection around Bukit Wang Burma to look at the latest situation at the Malaysia-Thailand border yesterday.
The media also joined the operation with the Perlis police chief through the hilly jungle path to reach one of the old campsites, which took more than three hours to reach the Simpang Lima GOF post near here.
According to Bernama’s observation, relics such as rice containers, food, food trays, clothes, canvas, small boy’s teddy bears and drink cans were still scattered around the surrounding area.
In 2015, then-inspector-general of police Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar confirmed that 139 graves and camps related to human trafficking were found around the Malaysia-Thailand border area.
Following that, in 2019, then-home minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin was reported to have said that the government established a Royal Commission of Inquiry to investigate the case of human trafficking in Wang Kelian in depth.
Halim said the survey area was at one of the former campsites out of a total of 27 active camps then believed to be used by smugglers to bring in illegal immigrants at that time using several routes from the border area.
“On our right, a little below the hill is one of the sites used as burial ground for undocumented migrants who died while they were being brought out using the route through the rubber plantation,”
“What we found today (yesterday) was the remains left by undocumented migrants and when we wanted to go up, we found that the path we used was overgrown with bushes blocking the path to the peak,” he said.
Meanwhile, Halim said current human smuggling activity modus operandi involves crossing the state border by cutting fencing and engaging with organised agents or transporters who use the services of locals.
He said investigations found that undocumented migrants had to pay about RM5,000 per person for them to reach their destination.
In the meantime, he said the presence of the GOF and VAT 69 patrol team at the Malaysia-Thailand border is also to protect the forest treasures found in Perlis so that they are not invaded arbitrarily.
“…in this forest reserve area in Perlis (it is believed) to be a target for poachers, looking for agarwood,” he said. – March 3, 2024