Page 124 - Beautiful Rohingyas

ary. More than 1,000 people from
Rakhine on boats from Bangladesh
and Myanmar were abandoned on the high

seas without adequate food and water by Thai security for-
ces.
This inhumane practice is a crime under international

law. Countries of course have a right to prevent refugees
from entering their own territorial waters but they must
not endanger refugees' lives in so doing. Yet that condition is
easily breached. After floating at sea for weeks, some 400
Rakhine refugees were rescued by the Indian Navy and 392
by the Indonesian authorities. The rest had perished at sea.

The difficult conditions faced by Rakhine Muslims

in the countries to which they flee

Those Rakhine Muslims who manage to stay in the coun-
tries they flee to still live under very difficult conditions.
Most are forced to work illegally, and many are lost to human

traffickers. Since they have no official documents they are
detained, arrested, exiled or, worst of all, forced back to their
country of origin. Yet Article 33 of the 1951 U.N. Refugee
Convention 2 explicitly prohibits the return of refugees. 3
Accordingly, no matter what the legal regulations in the host
country, refugees must not be returned to a country where
they will be persecuted.