Update Jan. 19th: Read about the meeting of human rights activists and the Thai Prime Minister at the Bangkok Post here.
….India has its own Rohingya problem as we reported just last month. From one of the metastisizing Rohingya stories this week about the alleged mistreatment (some say murder) by the Thai military of illegal alien Rohingya Muslims trying to get into Thailand:
India’s coast guard said Sunday it had rescued hundreds of the refugees from the Rohingya ethnic group, who live along the border of Myanmar and Bangladesh, but that hundreds more were feared lost.
At least this story (AFP from Port Blair, India) mentions a reason for why the Thai Navy might not want Rohingya in Thailand.
Thailand is facing a brutal separatist insurgency in the south of the country that has left more than 3,500 people dead in the last five years, and the government would be sensitive about any mass influx of migrants.
An “expert” from Human Rights Watch discounts that fear.
David Mathieson, an expert on Myanmar with New York-based Human Rights Watch, said Thailand had for the past few years taken a harsh stance on Rohingya landing on its shores, in part because they wanted to discourage further migration of the group through Thailand.
There were also fears that some are mercenaries trying to join the separatist insurgency, although Mathieson said there was little evidence to back up those claims.
Coincidentally, India arrested Rohingya passing through India to get to Pakistan just a few weeks ago. Here again is the post I did on that just after Christmas. Indian officials contend that Rohingya have joined the HuJI—Harakat ul-Jihad-I-Islami (HUJI) (Movement of Islamic Holy War). I have no further word on what India did with those they detained.
We have been following the Rohingya issue for more than a year now with 46 previous posts in our special category, Rohingya Reports. If at some point anyone wants to know more about their newly arrived neighbors and how they got there (mark my words they will be resettled to your town one day), you will be able to understand the public relations campaign that brought them to the West.
Update a few minutes later: Thai Prime Minister to meet with human rights groups tomorrow and contends that Rohingya may be involved in drug trafficking and human smuggling and not Islamic terrorism.