Tenaganita said it wanted the government to explain the reasons for the cover-up and destruction of evidence.

“We want to know if those in power have the political will to produce the perpetrators of these murders and torture of innocent refugees and migrants.

“Those who know about it are equally guilty of the crime,” executive director Glorene A Das said in a statement.

Yesterday, the New Straits Times reported that the authorities had already known about the mass graves in Wang Kelian on the Malaysia-Thai border, but delayed announcing it until four months after they were first discovered.

The daily also said police had cleared the campsite where the mass graves were discovered, destroying potential evidence at the crime scenes before they were processed by forensics personnel.

It said the probe revealed that Wang Kelian might have been part of a “massive, coordinated cover-up”.

Glorene called for a Royal Commission of Inquiry to identify the weaknesses and gaps in the work of government agencies that deal with human trafficking.

A similar call was made yesterday by human rights group Lawyers for Liberty.

Glorene added that NST’s expose explained the lack of interest shown by the authorities in the matter, and that the blatant complicity of the authorities in this matter was of “great concern”.

The expose, she said, had shattered the trust of the people in those responsible for governing Malaysia.

“As long as we accept these forms of cover-ups, keep silent and let the perpetrators get away with impunity, we are an accomplice to human trafficking and we continue to have more blood on our hands.”