By Silvia di Gaetano
September 28, 2015
This article is part of “Southeast Asia: Refugees in Crisis,” an ongoing series by The Diplomat for summer and fall 2015 featuring exclusive articles from scholars and practitioners tackling Southeast Asia’s ongoing refugee crisis. All articles in the series can be found here.
As one of the worst cases of human tragedy since the Holocaust, in which a particular ethnic and religious group was targeted for their existence, the plight of the Rohingya can no longer be ignored by the governments of Southeast Asia. Several steps can be taken to address the issues and past successes show that there may be light at the end of the tunnel.
The discovery of 26 bodies belonging to Rohingya and Bangladeshi migrants in a camp on the Thai-Malaysia border in early May marked the start of the current round of Southeast Asia’s refugee crisis. As the Thai authorities continued their crack down on smuggling gangs operating trafficking rings from Myanmar to Malaysia, the number of camps, graves and bodies discovered only increased. These discoveries were efforts on the part of the Thai government to avoid a downgrade in an influential U.S. State Department annual report that ranks countries on their anti-trafficking efforts and in an attempt to shut down the smuggling route from Myanmar to Malaysia.
