Jolie concern at Rohingya plight

By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Bangkok

The Thai military's hardline approach in recent weeks has been a public relations disaster

US film star Angelina Jolie has spoken out on behalf of Rohingya boat people arriving in Thailand, during a visit to a camp along the Thai-Burmese border.

Ms Jolie is in Thailand in her capacity as a goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency.

She urged the Thai authorities to show the same generosity to Rohingyas as they have to tens of thousands of other asylum seekers fleeing from Burma.

The Thai military has been accused of setting Rohingyas adrift at sea.

Around 18,000 asylum seekers live in the cramped Ban Mai Nai Soi camp, which was chosen by Angelina Jolie for her visit this week.

It lies close to the border with Burma in Thailand's north-western tip - so close that at times it has been shelled during fighting between the Burmese army and ethnic Karen rebels.

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The condition of its inhabitants epitomises Thailand's ambivalent policy towards refugees; they are usually given safe refuge, but they are restricted from leaving the camps by the Thai authorities, and not recognised as refugees.

Thailand has never signed the UN convention on refugees, and strictly limits the role of the UN refugee agency.

Over the years millions have fled here from war, poverty and repression in neighbouring countries; from Cambodia and Vietnam in the 1970s and 80s, and more recently from Laos and Burma.

Some have been allowed to work, albeit illegally, some confined to camps, and some expelled.

Angelina Jolie questioned this seemingly inconsistent policy - she asked why Thailand could not accommodate Rohingya boat people in the same way it has absorbed so many others from Burma.

But the Thai military still wields decisive influence over how asylum-seekers are treated, and appears to view the Muslim Rohingyas, who have been arriving by boat in much larger numbers over the past two years, as a security threat.

That could explain why they have been subjected to much harsher treatment than anyone else crossing Thailand's borders in recent years.