Word: thais
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...desperate years, they have tried to flee to the comparatively richer climes of Southeast Asia. Waves of Rohingya migrants routinely take to the sea from the marshlands and jungle of eastern Bangladesh, often with the help of people smugglers who charge extortionate rates for their services. One report says Thai authorities alone picked up 4,886 Rohingya in an unspecified period from...
Muzaffar was part of the most recent exodus. According to the transcript of his interview with the Arakan Project, Muzaffar claimed that after he and his companions had sailed for 12 days in a contingent of two boats, the Thai navy picked them up and moved them to a barren isle off the Thai mainland - NGO sources suspect this is Koh Sai Daeng, or Red Sand Island - alongside Rohingya detainees captured from other refugee expeditions. They were 412 in total. For eight days, Muzaffar said, they were kept in the open and given little more than "two mouthfuls of rice...
...missing but were able to rescue only nine refugees from the sea. The survivors have been fed and given medical treatment. They are being housed in relief camps, where they were reached by phone calls from the Arakan Project as well as a reporter from the BBC. The Thai government has yet to return TIME's calls on the matter of the treatment of these refugees, but the country's Foreign Ministry released a statement on Jan. 16 saying that officials were investigating the "facts and surrounding circumstances" of the incident...
Other reports from around the region suggest that Muzaffar's experience was not an isolated incident. A Jan. 14 story in the Jakarta Post said 193 Rohingya were rescued by Acehnese fishermen on Jan. 7 and are now being housed at an Indonesian naval base. The refugees there claim Thai marines also cut them adrift after destroying the engines on their boats, and they managed to stay afloat by erecting sails made of plastic tarpaulin. Survivors from a second wave of refugees "pushed back" from Thailand - a contingent of some 580 - have also made their way to India's Andaman...
...kind of diaspora-based support groups that provide publicity and aid to some of Burma's other oppressed minorities. Their plight, though, may be a central issue at the next regional ASEAN Summit, which will take place at the end of February in Thailand. By then, observers hope the Thai government will employ different methods in tackling the problem. "Governments in the region need to put together a proactive plan to meet the needs of the Rohingya," says Garcia. "You can't literally make these people go away, as if they were less than human." But for thousands of Rohingya...