Thai authorities have arrested two men charged with human trafficking, police said on Tuesday, following the discovery of 134 suspected victims in southern Thailand at a time when the military government is under international pressure to tackle the crime. The two Thais were charged in relation to a group of 53 men found on Saturday at a rubber plantation - 38 from Bangladesh and 15 Rohingya, a mostly stateless Muslim minority from western Myanmar. "The two men have been charged with trafficking and bringing foreign labor into the country illegally," a senior police official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters. … [Read more...] about Two Thais arrested for trafficking of Bangladeshis, Rohingya
Rohingya human rights watch
Myanmar leader plans Washington visit: source
Myanmar President Thein Sein plans a landmark visit to Washington this month in a sign of US support for his reforms despite a recent surge in anti-Muslim violence, a source said Thursday. The trip would include a summit with President Barack Obama at the White House. Administration officials declined immediate comment but have previously said that they were studying a visit by Thein Sein. The source said the United States was considering as another gesture a change in US policy to call the nation Myanmar, the leaders' preferred usage, and not the previous name of Burma, which is used by exile groups. It would be the first visit to Washington by a head of the country since military leader Ne Win was invited in 1966 by president Lyndon Johnson. Thein Sein has previously visited the United States to attend the UN General Assembly, but only held meetings in New York. Thein Sein, a former general, surprised even many skeptics after taking office in 2011 as a nominal civilian by … [Read more...] about Myanmar leader plans Washington visit: source
Thailand to deport 400 Rohingya migrants after raid
Around 400 Rohingya migrants discovered in a raid on a camp hidden in a remote rubber plantation in southern Thailand will be deported back to Myanmar, Thai police said on Friday. The group, 378 men, 11 women and 12 children, were found in a makeshift shelter in the plantation in Songkhla province where they had languished for three months waiting to be trafficked to a "third country", local police said. Acting on a tip-off officials stormed the shelter on Thursday and found the Rohingya, a Muslim minority group not recognised as citizens in Myanmar who have fled sectarian unrest in their thousands to Thailand and other countries. "They are now waiting for deportation which will be done by Thailand's immigration police," Lieutenant Colonel Katika Jitbanjong of Padang Besar local police told AFP. "They told officials that they had volunteered to come (to Thailand)," he said, adding police were seeking an arrest warrant for the Thai landowner on charges of human trafficking and … [Read more...] about Thailand to deport 400 Rohingya migrants after raid