US calls for speedy inquiry into Thai mass grave
The United States, which has censured Thailand for failing to act against human trafficking, called on Monday for a speedy and credible inquiry into the discovery of a mass grave containing more than two dozen bodies thought to be of ethnic migrants.
Police and volunteers exhumed 26 bodies on Friday and Saturday near a suspected trafficking camp deep in the southern Thai jungle near Malaysia that held as many as 400 trafficked migrants, mainly Muslim Rohingyas from Myanmar and Bangladesh.
A spokesperson for the US State Department said the United States was in contact with the Thai government, the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration over the discovery and understood that Thai authorities were actively investigating reports of other camps.
"We encourage a transparent, credible and expeditious inquiry into this case," the official said. "We urge Thai authorities to investigate fully these deaths and camps, and prosecute those responsible."
RELATED