Since October 2006, about 10,000 Rohingya have boarded boats in Bangladesh and Burma and headed for Thailand and Malaysia. The thousands of Rohingya boat people are only the tip of the iceberg. Millions of Burmese have fled the country in the past decade, with two million in Thailand alone.

ASEAN must be proactive in pressuring Burma’s military regime, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) to cease perpetuating the severe persecution and economic mismanagement that has been forcing millions of people to flee to neighboring countries.