KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — Malaysian authorities said Sunday that they have discovered a series of graves in more than a dozen abandoned camps used by human traffickers on the border with Thailand, where Rohingya Muslims fleeing Myanmar have been held.
The finding follows a similar discovery earlier this month by police in Thailand, who unearthed at least 33 bodies from shallow graves on the Thai side of the border.
Malaysian Home Minister Zahid Hamidi told reporters Sunday that police were trying to identify and verify "the mass graves that were found."
"These graves are believed to be a part of human trafficking activities involving migrants," he said. There was no immediate word on how many bodies had been recovered, or how old the alleged trafficking camps or graves were.
Authorities say they have known for years that the area on the Thai-Malaysia border was used to smuggle Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, as well as Bangladeshis and other migrants, to third countries including Malaysia, which is predominantly Muslim.
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