NEWS reports said that the government of Thailand has indicted 72 people including police officers, government servants, politicians and an army general for their alleged involvement in human trafficking; which rocked the international community early this year bringing shame on the peaceful Buddhists nation. The move to prosecute the traffickers no doubt showed the Thai government’s resolve to punish the criminals and give justice to the victims. It is really a praiseworthy attempt; we must say to establish the rule of law and show that no matter the accused are powerful government officials or army general, the Thai legal system is above the influence of vested interest quarters. Justice will be delivered. This is particularly inspiring to us in Bangladesh where the rule of law is used selectively even to spare an accused if the person is close to the ruling party and hook an innocent if the person is not in the good book of the government.
The most pertinent question is now whether the Bangladesh government would take up massive investigation to arrest and punish the leading members of the trafficking network who have worked with the Thai human traffickers. They are known to local people as influential politicians running local recruiting network and operated the business with support from a section of local police and officials in Cox’s Bazar and Teknaf regions. They collected thousands of poor people from all over the country to find them jobs in Malaysia which they wanted so desperately to come out of poverty. But they were looted out on the way and forced to die in Thai jungle and at sea.
Reports said the Thai prosecutor general office has already inducted the main accused and asked the courts to issue arrest warrants against them for running and facilitating human trafficking of thousands of poor Bangladeshi migrants and Rohingya refugees at a time over the past few years. The traffickers ran the billion dollar slave trade which was reminiscent of the medieval slave trade meant for supplying workers this time to Malaysian plantation and agriculture.
In fact the demand for trial of the members of the trafficking syndicates became so strong from local and international quarters ever since the discovery of mass graves containing the bodies of the ill-fated migrants in jungle camps near the Thai-Malaysian border in May this year. The Thai government had tolerated the trade at the initial stage, but its horrors immediately struck the conscience of the nation on disclosure of the jungle brutalities and the government immediately cracked on the network. Most indicted persons are now Thai nationals, besides several Myanmar and Bangladeshi citizens who were members of the regional traffickers’ gang and operated from Thai cities.
The response of the Thai government shows its sensitivity to the crime against humanity committed in the country known for the friendliness of its smiling people. We were shocked when we came to know about the gruesome activities happened and yet we found it unbelievable for Thai people to be capable of such crimes.
