Rev. Danny Fisher

Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) Medical Coordinator Gabriela Popescu writes about the plight of Burma’s Rohingya minority:

The scandal over Thailand’s treatment of the Rohingya, washed up in Indonesia and on the Andaman Islands after being set adrift by the Thai military forces has finally brought the plight of these people in the headlines. Seeing so much press coverage has filled me with both a competing sense of promise and frustration.

Promise because finally their desperate situation is gaining public recognition. For decades these people have fled the hardships they face in Myanmar, only to suffer horrible living conditions and a lack of official recognition as refugees in Bangladesh and elsewhere. And frustration because of the atrocities that people continue to suffer and because the situation is not always understood for what it clearly is – a chronic humanitarian crisis – with its roots firmly in Myanmar.

Read her reflections in their entirety here.

[Photo by Rafiqur Rahman for Reuters. "Rohingya woman Nur Kahtun cries at Fadanardal near Cox's Bazar. Her husband was among a group who left Bangladesh in a rickety wooden boat, lured by agents promising a job in Malaysia."]