Burma

: Thousands are believed to have died, abandoned by people smugglers and refused safe landing by neighbouring countries, according to Toronto Star. But until dramatic photographs emerged this past week, the horror engulfing the Rohingya people had been happening quietly off-stage – mostly unwitnessed by others and therefore ignored by governments. Tens of thousands of members of a Muslim minority group in Burma, persecuted and impoverished, have been fleeing that country by boat. Burma has liberalized in the past few years, but the new government has shamefully allowed discrimination and violence against the country 1 million Rohingyas to grow unchecked – and even refuses them citizenship. Tragically, countries like Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia are pushing the Rohingyas back to sea when they try to make landfall. Some 150,000 have crowded into desperate refugee camps along the coast, while another 130,000 have fled by sea since 2012, according to the United Nations. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.