HUMAN
RIGHTS
WATCH
|
Sunai Phasuk Senior Researcher,
Prime Minister’s Racist Comments Reflect Inhumane Asylum Seeker Policy
Rohingya refugees sit behind bars at a police station in Satun province, southern Thailand on Wednesday, June 12, 2019. © 2019 AP Photo/Sumeth Panpetch
Thai Prime Minister Gen. Prayuth Chan-ocha’s racist slurs directed at the Rohingya are bad enough. But they are made even worse because they reflect the Thai government’s cruel policy toward Rohingya asylum seekers who take perilous journeys to escape persecution and serious abuses in Myanmar’s Rakhine State.