Thai authorities find 6 more bodies in people-smuggling probe

Thai authorities investigating people-smuggling said six more bodies were found today in the same patch of jungle bordering Malaysia where the remains of dozens of migrants were exhumed last week.
The latest bodies were discovered about one kilometre from the hillside site where the remains of 26 migrants were found over the weekend, near the town of Padang Besar in the southern province of Songkhla.
Hours later authorities released a statement saying 38 police officers in southern Thailand have been transferred from their positions -- including more than a dozen from senior immigration roles.
The move takes the number of police transfers since last week's grim discovery past 50 after an earlier spate of redeployment which comes as the ruling junta has vowed it is serious about tackling the kingdom's spiralling trafficking crisis.

National police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said the bodies of two men and four women had been found not far from where the mass grave had been exhumed at a suspected people smugglers camp.
"It was in a graveyard in a forest on the hillside... around one kilometre from the first camp," he told AFP.

"They were old bodies," Prawut said, referring to their state of decay.
A second senior police officer confirmed the find.
Thai authorities have not yet identified any of the remains, saying they are in a severe condition of decay.
But the dead are believed to be migrants from Myanmar or Bangladesh. While forensic officers have yet to conclude the causes of death, police have speculated that they may have died from malnutrition or disease.

Five officials from Padang Besar have been charged with human trafficking while three more people are on the run, Prawut added.
Rights groups have long accused the Thai authorities of turning a blind eye to -- and even being complicit in -- people-smuggling.