Bangkok needs to address its brutal mistreatment of the persecuted Rohingya minority

For years Thailand has been a refuge for many fleeing from the killing fields of Myanmar. However, while the Thai Police and government have been tolerant of the Buddhists fleeing there but when it comes to Rohingya and other non-Buddhist minorities they were quite intolerant. Many times they would handover the fleeing refugees back to the Myanmar security forces who would either kill those unfortunate ones or put them indefinitely in prison cells.

In May 2015, gruesome mass graves were unearthed in southern Thailand, revealing scores of bodies belonging to mostly Rohingya refugees who had been victimized by human traffickers. The discovery placed Thailand under a global spotlight exactly at the time when the country was seeking to be upgraded by the United States in terms of its handling of human trafficking. Here is an article that discusses the need for Thailand to stop its own atrocities against the Rohingyas. 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.

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