The reshuffling of 31 police colonels resulted from a resolution adopted at Monday’s commission meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon.

Yesterday national police chief Somyot Poompanmoung told reporters that 32 policemen including immigration officers in southern provinces have been transferred from their jobs over “involvement in the trafficking of Rohingya” migrants.

Arrest warrants have been issued for three more Thai military officers over human trafficking as part of a crackdown that sparked a regional migrant crisis earlier this year.

The CIB is a key police agency supervising the Crime Suppression Division and Anti-Human Trafficking Division, which deal with criminal cases countrywide.

Thailand has long been a hub for the trafficking of persecuted Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar, who in recent years have been increasingly joined on their perilous sea crossings by Bangladeshi economic migrants.

He added that warrants of arrest would be sought for several other military and police officers alleged to be involved in the case in the near future.

Among them, naval commander Kampanart Sangtonggeen has been accused of accepting bribes to turn a blind eye to the smuggling of Rohingya people along Thailand’s western Andaman coast.

However, Col Natsit, together with the three army suspects, have not yet reported to police, said Pol Maj Gen Pawin Phonsirin, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 8.

Police Lt. Gen. Paveen Pongsirin, the chief investigator for the case, said warrants have now been issued for 153 people, 90 of whom have turned themselves in or been detained.

Local media reports that the four leaders are said to have deliberately avoided intercepting migrant vessels in return for money given to them by traffickers.

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