Thai Brutality

A boat carrying 46 refugees from Burma was intercepted off a southern Island of Thailand this morning, reports the BBC.

This comes as some have accused the Thai military of taking boatloads of Burmese asylum-seekers deep into the Indian Ocean on motorless boats with no food, then setting the refugees adrift.

The military is denying the claims, but testimony taken from dehydrated and exhausted survivors found in neighboring Indonesia or on the Andaman Island well off the coast of Thailand described brutal treatment from Thai security forces.

The refugees are of a Burmese minority group known as Rohingyas, a Muslim group of Indo-origin seen by the Buddhist rulership in Burma as the lowest of the low. Rising numbers of Rohingyas in Bangladesh and Thailand are seen by some as a security threat with possible ties to Islamic extremists, though there is no evidence of this.

The Thai government has ordered an investigation into the matter, declaring its dedication to dealing humanely with immigration.