Malaysian authorities said Monday they have discovered 139 suspected graves in a series of abandoned camps used by human traffickers on the border with Thailand where Rohingya Muslims fleeing Burma were believed to have been held.
Malaysian police chief Khalid Abu Bakar said that a sweep of the hilly, jungle area found at least 28 camps along a 30-mile stretch of the border. At one of the camps, police found "a highly decomposed body" that would be examined by forensics experts as teams began the work of excavating the areas believed to be graves.
Police said 139 graves had been found near the camps, but added that they did not know how many bodies were inside the graves. Some graves were believed to hold more than one person, officials said.
Al Jazeera's Florence Looi, reporting from Perlis state, said police had found traces of food at some of the migrant camps, indicating that they may have been recently abandoned.
"Police found one highly decomposed body and believe that person may have died two or three weeks ago," she said.
Fleeing persecution
Dozens of suspected human traffickers have been arrested by Malaysian police during the investigation and officials said the information they provided has led to the graves and camps being found.
Northern Malaysia is on a route for smugglers bringing people to Southeast Asia by boat from Myanmar, most of them Rohingya who say they are fleeing persecution, and people from Bangladesh seeking work. Smugglers have also used southern Thailand.
