Thai police target human traffickers but rescued Rohingya may face more abuse

Akram, an 18-year-old Rohingya, who cannot walk and whose body is pocked with fly-blown sores from months of immobility, rests on a makeshift bed at a mosque near Songkhla, close to Thailand's border with Malaysia February 12, 2014. REUTERS/Damir Sagolj

SADAO, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai police have announced a new campaign against human traffickers, although the officer in charge said hundreds of recently rescued Rohingya boat people could end up back in the clutches of the regional smuggling networks they had escaped from.

After two raids last month freed a total of 636 people, mostly Rohingya, police said they planned to target the trafficking "kingpins" who routinely smuggle humans through southern Thailand to Malaysia with impunity.