Human trafficking suspected as 13 Muslims found dead on Yangon roadside

By DMG 05 Dec 2022

DMG Newsroom
5 December 2022, Yangon 

Thirteen Muslim corpses were found dumped by a roadside in Yangon’s Hlegu Township on Monday morning, according to local residents. 

The bodies were left near Tabin Shwe Htee Road, between No. 7 Highway and Ngwe Nanthar Village in Hlegu Township, according to a resident of Ngwe Nanthar Village who saw the bodies. 

“The bodies were dumped by the roadside. Police came and made checks. All the victims are young people. They were carried away by ambulances operated by charities,” he said. 

A member of a Hlegu social organisation said: “We have sent the bodies to the hospital. It appears that they suffocated to death.” 

A Hlegu police station source corroborated the cause of death.  

“According to the post-mortem, they died of suffocation. It is possible that they came from Arakan, and they were hiding in a cargo truck. The drivers dumped the bodies and ran away. Police have opened an investigation.” 

Risking arrest and prosecution on immigration charges with potential imprisonment of up to five years, Muslims in Arakan State continue to attempt to leave the state to work elsewhere in the country or abroad, driven by job scarcity and institutionalised discrimination in Arakan. Their journeys are often helped along by a network of agents facilitating passage via transit points such as Yangon, Kayin State’s Myawaddy and Kawthaung, Tanintharyi Region, at Myanmar’s southern border with Thailand. 

Authorities arrested 68 undocumented Muslim travellers on November 28 in Hlegu Township, which lies on the outskirts of Yangon Region.