Thais leave boat people to die

This was on the BBC website today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7830710.stm

That's "Amazing Thailand" for you.

To improve the balance of the report, perhaps the BBC should consider the following questions:

1 How else the BBC expect the Thais to stop illegal immigration?
2 Bangladesh is next door to India, but the Bangladeshi people evidently weren't trying to move there. Why?

Ideally, of course the UN would remove the Burmese dictatorship & therefore reduce hardship in Burma.

This was on the BBC website today:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/7830710.stm

That's "Amazing Thailand" for you.

Old news. During the '80s and '90s the Vietnamese Boat people were regularly robbed and raped by Thai "pirates".

Simply a hazard that the moral blackmailing economic migrant faces.

In the US I live in Long Beach CA, which has a very large Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Thai population. I have a Vietnamese friend in the US that just recently talked to me about being a victim of Thai immirgation. He is now a 39 year old DR in the US. Hiep arrived by boat in Thailand when he was 10 years old alone, his mother had given him $40 US before sending him to "freedom." Upon landing in Thailand he was stripped naked, robbed of money and all possessions and spent the next four years begging in a refugee camp with no adult support, wearing rags and eating scraps. before being taken to the US at age 14. Smart and motived, he has become very successful DR in the US, but he assures me that he will never forget or forgive Thai "hospitality."

In the US I live in Long Beach CA, which has a very large Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Thai population. I have a Vietnamese friend in the US that just recently talked to me about being a victim of Thai immirgation. He is now a 39 year old DR in the US. Hiep arrived by boat in Thailand when he was 10 years old alone, his mother had given him $40 US before sending him to "freedom." Upon landing in Thailand he was stripped naked, robbed of money and all possessions and spent the next four years begging in a refugee camp with no adult support, wearing rags and eating scraps. before being taken to the US at age 14. Smart and motived, he has become very successful DR in the US, but he assures me that he will never forget or forgive Thai "hospitality."

That's an amazing story. Tom, we're neighbors -- I live in Santa Monica. :salute:

[cottmann]

Unfortunately the international legal situation regarding boat people is quite complicated, which the BBC story ignores. See http://www.migrationinformation.org/Fea ... .cfm?ID=80 (http://www.migrationinformation.org/Feature/display.cfm?ID=80)

[bigben]

I agree, great story.

Well isn't that special.....we are all neighbors.

Born and raised in Redondo Beach.

Hello my Pacific Coast friends.

Now TDY in Issan last 7 years. :thumbleft:

This is indeed another sad story emerging from this part of the world.
Rohingya Muslims are living in Burma mostly in Northern Rakhine State, near the border of Bangladesh.
The fact that these people flee to Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, says enough about their situation inside Burma. They are one of the several minorities that are oppressed by the cruel Burmese regime that is famous for its etnic cleansing of its minorities.
As long as nothing is done by the International Community and especially by Asean, India and China, will this tragic events continue to take place. The Burmese generals should be dealt appropriately. Not is the soft and non-interference way that has been used in the past. Ofcourse there are too much economic benefits involved for all these above mentioned parties.

MV
Belgium

Lots of replies on this, and it seems there is an opinion that there are reasons and it is acceptable to do what the Thais are doing. I agree that something must be done (diplomatically), but doing what the Thais have done is totally unacceptable. I can't believe some of the opinions on here.

Whitedesire, you are right.
If it is true what is reported, the behaviour of the Thais is completely to be condemned.
This is inhumane and beyond comprehension. I hope there will some inquiry and sanctions on what happened on the Thai shores.
With my first reaction, I wanted to give the rootcause of the problem without ignoring what the Thais did according to the report.

In the US I live in Long Beach CA, which has a very large Cambodian, Vietnamese, and Thai population. I have a Vietnamese friend in the US that just recently talked to me about being a victim of Thai immirgation. He is now a 39 year old DR in the US. Hiep arrived by boat in Thailand when he was 10 years old alone, his mother had given him $40 US before sending him to "freedom." Upon landing in Thailand he was stripped naked, robbed of money and all possessions and spent the next four years begging in a refugee camp with no adult support, wearing rags and eating scraps. before being taken to the US at age 14. Smart and motived, he has become very successful DR in the US, but he assures me that he will never forget or forgive Thai "hospitality."

I have a Vietnamese friend in the U.S. who told me a similiar experience in the refugee camp in Thailand. He too went through the abuse of Thais both emotionally and physically. He said Thais treated Vietnamese refugees like animals and would beat them up from time to time. He was in the camp for 7 years....sad story indeed.

[quiet1]

It never happened. (Just like The Holocaust.) See?

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingnews/30093444/Navy-denies-ill-treatment-of-Rohingya-migrants-from-Burma-and-Bangladesh

Move along now, nothing to see. :salute:

(Spike: Why is there no clearly-marked scarasm smiley?)

Lots of replies on this, and it seems there is an opinion that there are reasons and it is acceptable ....

WD, I don't think anyone has said that they think it is either reasonable or acceptable; while the Thai military's actions may be reprehensible (which is nothing new), singling Thailand out is a little unfair as this is not uncommon in many Asian countries. While in one small Asian country, in my 20's, I found myself in personal charge of all Vietnamese refugees (boat people) in the country simply because the country concerned refused to acknowledge their existence and to offer any form of support, but their landing (and boats sinking after a number of attacks by "pirates") had been witnessed by too many foreigners to be ignored. What those who were capable of talking told me (and many were too traumatised to speak, even after a considerable time) makes these reports look like a 4 star welcome in comparison.

The BBC has made another report on this today, although the report has a "CNN" tag on it, so I suspect they have reported it from CNN. The point I'm making is that the media is not giving up on this and it looks as if the PM can't do much about it.

[Beachlover]

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25 ... 01,00.html (http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25002713-401,00.html)

Well... the Indonesians are reporting they found one of these boats with 200 refugees onboard. They say 20 had already died.

Dragging a boat out to sea and leaving it drifting with no engines is about as close to murder as you can get. I would bet that 80-90% or more don't survive... It's quite horrific. Perhaps thousands of Burmese refugees have died this way.

The navy may be in a difficult situation. Perhaps powers above are ordering the navy to "get rid of the problem" in any way possible.

For Thailand, the flood of refugees puts it in a difficult situation. It's a developing nation. It can't afford to accept all the refugees it comes across. It has a difficult border control (so many nearby countries, sea routes and overland routes) situation to tackle.

Thai leaders may feel it's not in their best interests to treat the refugees humanely. It encourages more refugees to attempt to land in Thailand. Thailand would be diverting its precious resources from its own needs as a relatively poor, developing country, desperate for economic growth.

Ordering the navy to turn away refugees gets rid of them in the cheapest possible way and deters more refugees from coming.

The humane option is expensive for Thailand and it encourages the problem to grow (more refugees to come). The inhumane option (towing/murdering them) is cheap and acts as a deterrent to more refugees.

None of this excuses the decisions made by leaders, be it political or military to tow refugees out to sea and leave them to an almost certain death.