More and more desperate boat people from Burma are risking their lives in the search for asylum in neighbouring countries. "Since persecution and hopelessness have become unbearable in their home country the Moslem Rohingya in particular are risking everything and fleeing across the sea from Burma”, reported the Asia consultant of the Society for Threatened Peoples STP (Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker GfbV), Ulrich Delius on Monday in Göttingen. "They have practically no chance of reaching safety by travelling overland. So many Burmese refugees, who had come to Bangladesh , take to flight once more because they are threatened there by attacks and forced deportation back to Burma .” The STP appealed urgently to the Association of South-east Asian Nations (ASEAN) to pass measures at its next summit meeting in Hanoi on 8 / 9th April 2010 for better protection for the Burmese refugees.

"It must be a fundamental principle of ASEAN politics to give asylum to persecuted people from Burma ”, demanded the human rights organisation in its fax to the ASEAN General Secretary, Surin Pitsuwan. It also drew attention to the dramatic odyssey of 93 Rohingya who landed last Friday in an overfilled wooden boat in the north of Malaysia . The refugee boat which set out on 28th February 2010 from Cox’s Bazaar in the south of Bangladesh had landed according to reports from Thai civil rights organisations on 8th March in Ranaaung ( Thailand ). But in Thailand the Rohingya were prevented from going ashore by the navy and sent out to sea once more. They were first given food, fuel and other supplies by Thai soldiers. After stopping for two days with engine trouble near the island of Shapuri Dip the boat finally reached the Malay coast, which offered them salvation.

"The behaviour of the Thai navy is inhuman and contradicts the spirit of the Geneva Convention for Refugees”, criticised Delius. But this time at least the refugees were given supplies. In December 2008 dozens of boat people died after the Thai navy had sent the refugees out to sea without any supplies. It is true that Thailand has not signed the Geneva Convention for Refugees. But all ASEAN states committed themselves to the protection of human rights in the ASEAN charter which came into force on 15th December 2008.

Two further boats with refugees from Burma left the coast of Bangladesh in the last week of February. Since the number of attacks on Rohingya refugees by security forces in Bangladesh is steadily increasing and their humanitarian situation is dramatically deteriorating, an increasing number have been trying to find asylum in third countries. More than 1,160 Rohingya refugees have been arrested since January 2010 in Bangladesh . Many of those arrested have been deported by force to their home country.

Ulrich Delius can be reached at asien@gfbv.de.