50 Thai officers suspended over trafficking links

Thai police have downplayed a probe into more than 50 officers transferred over suspected links to human trafficking networks, saying the transfers were “standard operating procedure” and that most of the officers were suspected only of negligence.

South-east Asia is being hit by a wave of migrants arriving in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, part of a regional human trafficking crisis driven by conflict, persecution and poverty.

Police Lieutenant General Prawut Thawornsiri, spokesman for the Royal Thai Police, said the transfers of the policemen were part of normal procedure and that most did not have direct links to human traffickers. Rather, they had been negligent in the detection of human trafficking camps and gangs in southern Thailand.

“This is normal procedure to move them out for investigation,” Prawut told Reuters in an interview. “We are conducting an internal investigation and it should be done in one month.

Malaysia detained more than one thousand Rohingya migrants from Burma and Bangladeshis earlier yesterday.