Edited by atira at 28-5-2015 11:59 AM
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Human trafficking undetected due to lack of patrols
FMT Reporters
| May 25, 2015
Minister says had forest rangers patrolled the area regularly, human trafficking activities could have been detected easily.
KANGAR: Questions are being asked as to how security forces were not aware of over 100 bodies said to have been buried in mass graves at the hilly area near the border town of Wang Kelian. The graves were found in a restricted area that is not open to civilians according to Astro Awani. “How come we missed such (human trafficking) activities,” said Shahidan Kassim, the Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department, after visiting the site. We should not view the matter lightly as it involved hundreds of lives, lamented Shahidan. He also said that if forest rangers had patrolled the hills and jungles in the area at least once a month, human trafficking activity could have been detected. Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi who visited the site yesterday said a cluster of 17 tents found close to where the mass graves were located, could have been used to accommodate refugees in Padang Besar. Apart from these tents, 14 other large tents and three additional smaller ones were located along the Malaysia-Thailand border, the minister said. Zahid said that this site of transit camps-turned mass grave was believed to have been operational for at least five years and was abandoned before security forces arrived at the location.
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