Crimes

Fishermen who were enslaved and in some cases held captive for a decade aboard seafood trawlers in Indonesia are now taking part in a lawsuit against one of the accused companies.  The 14 Myanmar fishermen were flown back to Indonesia to serve as witnesses in the ...

A thousand tonnes of timber bound for the Chinese border have been seized by police, with the help of local residents amid armed clashes between the Tatmadaw and the Kachin Independence Army. Investigators are now following up the seizure of the 2206 logs in Bhamaw/Bhamo township, ...

The Preah Vihear Provincial Court has ordered nine villagers to appear on 9 December to respond to allegations that they dismantled the office of a Malaysian rubber plantation company five months ago. The nine villagers and 300 protesters allegedly pried the wooden walls off of a building ...

Bangladesh and Myanmar remain at odds over 28 people who were among more than 900 rescued at sea in May, after being abandoned by human traffickers. Following the repatriation of 48 Bangladeshi nationals on 2 December, the Bangladesh embassy in Yangon said in a statement that ...

A Polish citizen of Lao heritage jailed in Laos for criticizing the government online will not be among hundreds of prisoners granted pardons by the end of the year because he “does not meet the proper criteria,” according to a public security official. Lao authorities arrested ...

A three-year investigation into slavery on Thailand’s fishing boats has uncovered a well-oiled system of trafficking, abuse and exploitation in the southern port of Kantang, leading to eight arrests this month, a campaign group said on 30 November. The owner of a fishing company, three enforcers ...

Countless rape victims, many of them children, have been failed by widespread flaws in Cambodia’s justice system, which have led to a “disturbingly low” number of convictions, a new study by the rights group Licadho has found. In its report, Getting Away With It: The Treatment ...

A Kachin  civil society group is urging relatives of those killed in a landslide near a Hpakant jade mine on 21 November to reject an offer of K600,000 compensation for each victim, and has reiterated threats to press charges against those involved in the mining ...

The Defence Ministry is establishing a Cambodian-Lao border commission in the interest of combating cross-border crime and facilitating frontier demarcation between the two countries. Keep reading ...

A Thai ship has been caught selling oil illegally to a Vietnamese fishing boat in southwestern waters, the Vietnam Coast Guard said in a statement.   V.Lucky with five Thai crewmen was carrying 170,000 liters of diesel and pumping the oil to a Vietnamese fishing boat that ...