Many Rohingya have gone missing at sea, but this latest boat tragedy highlights ASEAN’s indifference.

The sea keeps its secrets well. Another boat recently sank off the Malaysia–Thailand coast, swallowing hope and lives alike. Malaysian and Thai authorities are continuing to tally survivors and the dead, with 27 fatalities and dozens missing so far, yet the growing body count throws up unanswered questions that the region refuses to confront.

Stateless in their own homeland, they are chased from Rakhine, shunned by neighbours, and ignored by those who speak of “regional harmony” in marble-lined halls of diplomacy.

Myanmar, a Buddhist-majority country, continues to deny abuses against the Muslim Rohingya, claiming they are illegal immigrants from South Asia. Yet thousands flee clashes between ethnic militias and the forces of the ruling military junta, seeking safety away from their homeland, often at the cost of their lives.

According to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), more than 5,300 Rohingya attempted to flee Myanmar and Bangladesh by boat between January and early November of this year.

More than 600 have been reported dead or missing. Both agencies have called for greater international cooperation and a political solution in Myanmar to address the root causes of forced displacement, warning: “Until the drivers of onward movement and the root causes of forced displacement in Myanmar are resolved, refugees will continue to undertake dangerous journeys in search of safety.”

The recent tragedy off Thailand’s Koh Tarutao was not an isolated incident. Every week, Southeast Asian waters see overloaded, unseaworthy boats, with families packed together in hope and fear. Mothers clutch their children. Children cling to driftwood. Fathers stare blankly at the horizon, carrying dreams that will likely never be realized.

Each life lost is a moral indictment of a region that claims to value prosperity, trade, and tourism but fails to protect the most vulnerable.

ASEAN: A moral failure

At every ASEAN summit, the silence is deafening. The agenda moves briskly from trade to technology, but never to human dignity. Not a single joint communiqué has dared to call this crisis by its name: a moral failure. Refugees are discussed in statistics, not as people. They are spoken of as a “border issue” rather than a humanitarian obligation. It is as if their lives do not matter.

But they do. Every drowned child, every mother clutching a wooden plank, every nameless grave along the coast — each is a rebuke to a region that prides itself on “shared prosperity” while ignoring shared humanity.

As Nov. 16 approaches — the World Day of the Poor — we are reminded of the enduring message of Pope Francis: “The poor are not a problem to be solved, but brothers and sisters to be welcomed.”

Throughout his pontificate, he called on all Christians, social structures and institutions to go beyond pity or fleeting sympathy, urging presence, listening, and concrete action.

The Rohingya, the migrant, the refugee — they are not statistics. They are our brothers and sisters. To ignore them is to strip ourselves of the Gospel’s deepest truth: that God identifies Himself with the poor, the displaced, the forgotten.

Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and other neighbouring states cannot continue to treat this as someone else’s problem. Refugee protection must become a collective regional responsibility, with safe corridors, asylum mechanisms, and coordinated rescue responses. Non-interference in genocide is complicity. Political expediency cannot outweigh moral obligation.

Every day that passes without decisive action, the sea swallows more lives — and with it, our conscience.

It is tempting to look at these tragedies as distant news, easy to scroll past on social media. But each statistic hides a story: a father who promised his children education, a mother who whispered prayers in the dark, a boy who dreamed of playing cricket, a girl who imagined a school that would never exist. These are not faceless masses.

These are our brothers and sisters, the living embodiment of Christ’s call to love the stranger, the neighbour, the poor.

The Rohingya crisis is more than a regional dilemma. It is a moral litmus test for humanity itself. The sea may claim their bodies, but our inaction claims our souls.

Regional and international voices should rise to make ASEAN confront the structural failures that force people into treacherous waters, and the governments see the Rohingya as humans rather than inconveniences.

The World Day of the Poor is not merely a day on the calendar; it is a summons. A summons to see a drowned child not as a statistic, but as Christ in disguise. A summons to hear the cries of mothers, fathers, and children who ask not for charity, but for justice and protection.

Waters that swallow the Rohingya are mirrors reflecting the depth of our indifference: “Save me, O God, for the waters have risen to my neck.” — Psalm 69:1

Until ASEAN acts, until governments recognise their moral duty, until the powerful stop hiding behind the doctrine of non-interference, the sea will continue to swallow the forgotten.

And our silence? It will continue to sanctify the waves.

Republished from UCA News on 14 November 2025.

The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Pearls and Irritations.