The key suspect in the Environmental Justice Foundation’s (EJF) investigation into human trafficking and human rights abuses in Thailand’s seafood industry has been arrested.
Sold to the Sea: Human Trafficking in Thailand’s Fishing Industry included the testimonies of Burmese workers, as young as 16, trafficked in to Thailand and forced on to fishing vessels where, until their rescue months later, they were subjected to arduous, often violent, working conditions without pay.
Four of the 14 trafficking victims identified an individual named Ko Myo as the leader of a trafficking gang operating in southern Thailand’s Trang province.
This week, the Democratic Voice of Burma (DVB) media organisation reported that the Royal Thai Police and Department of Special Investigation (DSI) have arrested Ko Myo, following the capture of one of his aides on 31 July. One further individual was reportedly arrested on Tuesday.
According to the Democratic Voice of Burma “the notorious human trafficking and racketeering group are believed to have been behind approximately 40 murders and operated around the ports in Trang province’s Kantang district.”
Naing Htun, the labour attaché for the Burmese embassy in Bangkok (quoted by the Democratic Voice of Burma) said:
“Ko Myo, the human trafficking ring leader, was shot and captured alive at a rubber plantation in Surat Thani during a raid by combined forces from Thai government departments including the Royal Thai Police’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division and the Department of Special Investigation. Previously, the [authorities] arrested one of his aides and they managed to find out [Ko Myo’s] whereabouts following a trace from his mobile phone.”
