In January, Australians saw shocking photos of young, emaciated men washing up on the shores of Sumatra. Australian television showed these Rohingyas, members of a Muslim ethnic minority systematically mistreated by Burma’s military regime, describing how Thai authorities beat them and pushed them back out to sea. Video footage captured the Thai navy appearing to tow the men out to sea in their rickety boats. The world was horrified.

Fast forward to last week, when boat people were once again on our TV screens. On Oct. 18, an Australian naval vessel rescued a boatload of Sri Lankans in international waters (though Indonesia’s search and rescue area) and transferred them to a customs boat, which is now trying to set them ashore in Indonesia.

By Shafiq Alam (AFP) – 6 hours ago

KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh — As one of Myanmar's ethnic Muslim Rohingya, 45-year-old Manjurul Islam endured a lifetime of oppression before he finally fled the country for a squalid refugee camp in Bangladesh.

Described by UN officials as one of the most persecuted minorities on earth, the Rohingya are not even recognised as citizens by the Myanmar junta. They have no legal right to own land and are forbidden from marrying or travelling without permission.

Survivors say 22 migrants from Burma's Rohingya Muslim minority died at sea

    * Ian MacKinnon, south-east Asia correspondent
    * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 3 February 2009 12.19 GMT

Fishermen have rescued another 198 starving Burmese "boat people" after their vessel, which had no engine, was towed out to sea by Thai security forces and cast adrift, an Indonesian naval officer said today.

Survivors packed on board the fragile wooden boat, which was spotted drifting near Aceh, off the northern coast of Sumatra, said they had been in the open sea for about three weeks, during which 22 of the migrants from Burma's Rohingya Muslim minority had died.