Asia witnessed the “boat people” phenomenon forty years ago. Photos of haggard women, children and old people crowding small, rickety boats while crossing the South China Sea sent a wave of sympathy from many countries that eventually recognized them as refugees.
Four decades later, Rohingya women, children and men also fled on boats and crossed the Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea to seek safety. This time there were human traffickers and smugglers involved, there were governments that pushed their boats (abandoned by traffickers and smugglers) out to the sea instead of allowing them to land, and some ended up as slaves and died in slave camps. These people escaped conflict and violence only to end in worst situation.
The traffickers and smugglers must be held responsible for their crime.
Similar to the boat people of the 1970s, these fleeing Rohingyas deserve safety in other countries pursuant to international humanitarian law, as well as protection of their human rights.
The future may have such boat people again, but will the past and present experiences teach lessons on avoiding suffering for people seeking safety?