Malaysia has stepped up a crackdown on human trafficking despite fears that the campaign could prevent people escaping the dictatorship in neighbouring Myanmar.
Malaysian immigration official Mohammad Zaidi Che revealed that a human trafficker could face 35 years in prison for smuggling 12 people out of Myanmar last week.
The man had charged ethnic Rohingya and Chin people about £300 each to help them flee the country, which has been tightly controlled by a military junta since the aborted 1990 elections.
The poll, which resulted in a party led by Aung San Suu Kyi and opposed to the military's domination of the country winning 392 out of 489 seats, was declared void and anti-government protests since then have been savagely repressed.
According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), this repression has also been directed at Rohingya and Chin people in the north of Myanmar, causing many to attempt to flee.
Malaysia estimates that more than 150,000 Myanmese migrants are in the country but the UNHCR considers at least 43,000 of these to be refugees and has expressed concern that any crackdown on trafficking should not result in people being sent back across the frontier.
Malaysian immigration official Mohammad Zaidi Che revealed that a human trafficker could face 35 years in prison for smuggling 12 people out of Myanmar last week.
The man had charged ethnic Rohingya and Chin people about £300 each to help them flee the country, which has been tightly controlled by a military junta since the aborted 1990 elections.
The poll, which resulted in a party led by Aung San Suu Kyi and opposed to the military's domination of the country winning 392 out of 489 seats, was declared void and anti-government protests since then have been savagely repressed.
According to the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), this repression has also been directed at Rohingya and Chin people in the north of Myanmar, causing many to attempt to flee.
Malaysia estimates that more than 150,000 Myanmese migrants are in the country but the UNHCR considers at least 43,000 of these to be refugees and has expressed concern that any crackdown on trafficking should not result in people being sent back across the frontier.
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