<p>The Myanmar authorities’ restrictions on international aid in Rakhine state is putting tens of thousands of lives at risk in a region where mainly Rohingya people are already suffering horrific abuses from a disproportionate military campaign, Amnesty International said today.</p> <p>Aid workers told Amnesty International of an increasingly desperate humanitarian situation in Rakhine state, where the military has been engaged in a large-scale operation since attacks on dozens of security posts on 25 August, claimed by the armed group Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army.</p>

<p>ASEAN lawmakers urged regional governments today to do more to protect migrant workers and refugees, arguing that all members of the ASEAN community are entitled to basic rights and deserve to have their dignity and humanity respected.&nbsp;</p>

<ul> <li>Rohingya refugees and asylum-seekers being detained and forcibly returned</li> <li>Lack of water, food and medical care</li> <li>Both governments preventing thousands from accessing aid</li> <li>Harrowing details of Myanmar military attacks on villages</li> </ul> <p><img alt="" src="https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5833/30424619304_89d4aed1ee_c.jpg" /></p>

<p>A provincial court in southern Thailand has sentenced a man to 35 years in jail for trafficking nearly 100 Rohingya refugees, some of whom died from suffocation.</p> <p>The provincial court of the southern province of Nakhon Si Thammarat on Wednesday, 31 August 2016, sentenced Sunon Saengthong, an alleged human trafficker, to 35 years imprisonment and a fine of 666,000 baht, the Migrant Working Group reported.</p>

<p>Uighur asylum seekers detained in Thailand’s immigration detention facility have started a hunger strike, saying that they would rather die than be sent back to China.</p>

<p>Refugee rights advocacy groups are urging the Thai authorities to end the indefinite detention of Rohingya refugees and to investigate the extrajudicial killing of a Rohingya refugee by the police. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>The Migrant Working Group (MWG) and Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons (CRRSP), on Tuesday, 24 May 2016, issued a joint statement, urging the Thai authorities to stop detaining asylum seekers indefinitely and to investigate the extrajudicial killing of a Rohingya refugee by police officers.</p>

<p>A civil society group providing assistance to migrants in Thailand has stated that nearly 400,000 migrants are currently at risk of deportation while human trafficking problems are still endemic. &nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <p>On Thursday, 18 December 2015, International Migrants Day, the Migrant Working Group (MWG), a civil society organisation based in Thailand, held a press conference to launch its 2015 report ‘Migrant Crisis Protection’ at Xavier Hall in central Bangkok.</p>

<p>Thai authorities should release 64 asylum seekers detained in a recent raid who are being held in immigration detention, Human Rights Watch said today. The asylum seekers – including 7 children – are from Pakistan and Somalia, and possess “person of concern” documents issued by the United Nations refugee agency.&nbsp;<br /></p>

<p>Despite the euphoria surrounding the upcoming national election in November 2015, human rights abuses and violations are still prevalent in Myanmar with no clear sign of improvement.</p> <p>Representatives from many local civil society organisations (CSOs) in Myanmar took the floor at&nbsp;a Lecture organized by UPR Info and the Burma-Myanmar UPR Forum,&nbsp;at Thammasat University, Tha Prachan Campus, Bangkok, on Wednesday morning, 9 September 2015, to&nbsp;present on the human rights situation in Myanmar and in the borders of Thailand/Myanmar.&nbsp;</p>

<p>On 10 August 2015, North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong paid an official visit to Bangkok to boost bilateral ties. Among many issues, ironically, the two countries pledged to promote human rights and to enhance economic cooperation. They also discussed the issue of “nuclear” which might have made some Western nations disturbingly uncomfortable.</p>

<p>UNHCR has devised a plan to send refugees from camps in Thailand back to their homes in Myanmar on a voluntary basis while some refugee representatives said that they were not involved in the plan.</p>