Thai shelters struggle as Rohingya crisis deepens in Southeast Asia

[WorldNews]

By Alisa Tang BANGKOK (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Thai shelters for Rohingya women and children desperately need more assistance to care for victims of a deepening trafficking crisis across Southeast Asia, activists said on Friday. A lack of Rohingya translators, in particular, puts traumatized women and children at risk of falling back into the hands of traffickers. Thousands of Muslim Rohingya have been fleeing persecution and poverty in Myanmar and Bangladesh, paying to be smuggled aboard rickety boats across Southeast Asia's waters to Malaysia. In Thailand, those rescued by authorities are kept in immigration detention centers, while women and children are sent to shelters originally set up for victims of domestic violence.

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