The ASEAN Post has published articles on extreme climate in ASEAN member states such as in Myanmar and its threat to the locals, agriculture, and ecosystems. It is said that Myanmar is one of the most vulnerable countries at risk of climate crisis. Extreme droughts and flooding in recent years and cyclones have affected millions of locals and cost thousands their lives.

19 Rohingya and a Thai woman accused of housing them have been arrested for illegal entry to Thailand, police said Saturday, as concerns grow about trafficking routes for the Muslim minority fleeing Myanmar.The embattled Rohingya have long faced persecution in Myanmar, where they are denied freedom of movement and citizenship, and lack access to work, healthcare and schools. A 2017 military crackdown in western Rakhine state sent almost 750,000 fleeing across the border to Bangladesh

A coronavirus outbreak linked to a seafood market in Thailand passed 1,000 cases on Tuesday, as authorities weighed whether to introduce a wider lockdown.Thailand has been on tenterhooks since Thursday following the positive virus test of a 67-year-old prawn seller from Mahachai market, Samut Sakhon province, about 40 minutes southwest of Bangkok.As of early Tuesday morning, there were 1,063 confirmed positive cases out of 6,156 tested - a major outbreak for a country which previously had 4,3

Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha on Monday blamed a coronavirus outbreak linked to the kingdom's largest seafood market on low-paid migrant workers employed in the country's lucrative shrimp industry.Thailand has been on high alert since Thursday when a 67-year-old prawn seller from Mahachai market tested positive for coronavirus. Contact tracing and mass testing found more than 800 cases so far linked to the site - a major outbreak for a country which previously had j

Thailand will test more than 10,000 people for coronavirus after an outbreak linked to its biggest seafood market, officials said Sunday.Hundreds of infections have been linked to Mahachai market and port since a 67-year-old female prawn seller tested positive on Thursday - most cases among migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar, who toil in the kingdom's multi-billion-dollar seafood industry. Authorities ordered Myanmar workers around the market not to leave their residences

Thailand's biggest seafood market and the surrounding area were locked down Saturday to contain a coronavirus outbreak, after the country's largest spike in cases since the pandemic began.Despite being the first place to register an infection outside China, the kingdom had been mostly unscathed by the pandemic, with just over 4,000 cases and 60 deaths so far.But on Saturday night, authorities announced 548 positive cases connected to a seafood market.

From Rakhine state in Myanmar, the Rohingya are an ethnic community of largely Muslim people. Perhaps a million of them have fled from violence in the ASEAN member state in successive waves of displacement since the early 1990s. In 2017, hundreds of thousands more fled Myanmar to escape persecution, war crimes and alleged genocide. Today, over 900,000 Rohingya live in camps in Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh – the world’s largest refugee settlement.

Thai authorities urged calm on Tuesday as they scramble to trace a potential coronavirus outbreak after at least four women tested positive on returning from neighbouring Myanmar.Since detecting the first case outside of China back in January, Thailand has managed to keep COVID-19 infections low, at just over 4,000 cases, in part by imposing strict entry rules.But it shares an extremely porous 2,400-kilometre (1,500 mile) border with Myanmar, where the virus is rampant, with more than 1,000 n

Human rights lawyers and activists said on Monday that Myanmar is continuing to commit genocide against Rohingya Muslims in breach of orders by the United Nation (UN)'s top court.The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in January rejected arguments made personally by Myanmar's civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi in The Hague and imposed urgent interim measures on the predominantly Buddhist nation.The ICJ ordered Myanmar to cease the commission of genocidal acts, prevent the destructio

After five years without a single Muslim MP, Myanmar is in need of someone to help fight for the rights of oppressed minorities, says Sithu Maung as he celebrates his election to parliament.The 33-year-old was one of just two Muslims out of more than 1,100 candidates for Aung San Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party - up from zero in the last election in 2015.Muslims number about four percent of the national population and suffer particularly high levels of discrimi