Kuala Lumpur: Malaysian authorities on Monday buried 21 bodies of human trafficking victims believed to be Rohingya refugees found last month.
The bodies — 19 men, two women — were buried in the Kampung Tualang cemetery in Kedah state’s Pokok Sena town, Bernama news agency reported.
The bodies were buried after their autopsy was completed.
An official on Sunday said the remaining 85 bodies will also be buried in the same cemetery in stages, after their autopsies are completed.
A crackdown on human trafficking was launched in Thailand after dozens of bodies of deceased Rohingya migrants from Myanmar were exhumed from graves found in Thailand’s side of the border earlier this year.
Since the crackdown began, boats carrying thousands of migrants seeking to land in Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand, mostly from Myanmar and Bangladesh, have been stranded at sea.
Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to take on 7,000 Bangladesh migrants and Myanmar’s Rohingya refugees pending their repatriation.