AKIPRESS.COM - Malaysian authorities said on Thursday they were investigating official complicity and links to the shocking discovery of a network of people-smuggling camps and mass graves hidden in the jungle, reports The Guardian.

Deputy home minister Wan Junaidi Tuanku Jaafar said two police officers had been arrested, fuelling long-standing criticism by rights groups over a lack of action against alleged official involvement in the illicit trade.

“Two police officers who are suspected of involvement in transporting the people from Myanmar [Burma] have been arrested,” he told reporters in Wang Kelian, the Malaysia’s border town near the discovery of the camps.

He declined to comment on whether more police officers might be involved, saying authorities would “investigate everybody and anybody”. He also said several Rohingya who were already in Malaysia were arrested for helping to recruit migrants to the country.

Malaysia announced this week it had uncovered 28 camps deep in the jungle in the country’s north, close to the Thai border, and 139 grave sites scattered around the area.

It was the latest shocking development in Asia’s migrant crisis, which has exposed the plight of Rohingya Muslims from Burma who are fleeing persecution and of Bangladeshis escaping poverty, brought by boat to the dense forests of southern Thailand and northern Malaysia by people smugglers.

The authorities have faced criticism following the discovery, with mounting questions about their failure to detect the sites earlier and whether police may have been complicit.