I think we agree on most things re; this debacle, but differ on some details. Rametindallas asks 'How do they get this information?'I

Answer: various ways. For starters, many of the hundreds of Rohinga kept in detention in Thailand are coerced in to asking more money from their remaining relatives in Burma. Secondly: at least one or a few Rohinga (out of tens of thousands) have likely managed to return to their home villages.

As for traveling from one part of Burma to another. Granted, it's not easy, but for a single man, not impossible. Even me, with my blond hair and 6' height, have traveled within Burma and occasionally dodged/skirted around internal border guardposts on roads and highways.

likely managed to return to their home villages.

What villages? The Burma Buddhists are systematically burning down their villages and the Burma government is herding them into refugee concentration camps. They are treated as illegal, economic migrants in the country of their ancestors. They have been told they can't stay in Burma anymore even though their families have live there for hundreds of years. http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=photos+of+burned+Rohingya+villages+in+Burma&go=Submit&qs=n&form=QBIRMH&pq=photos+of+burned+rohingya+villages+in+burma&sc=0-0&sp=-1&sk=#a

The vast majority do not know what awaits them in Thailand or wherever they wind up. The Burma government would not let foreign aid agencies help the Muslim population after Typhoon Nardis. http://www.hrw.org/news/2013/05/14/burma-cyclone-threatens-displaced-muslims

''Instead of addressing the problem, Burma's leaders seem intent on keeping the Rohingya segregated in camps rather than planning for them to return to their homes.''

http://phuketwan.com/tourism/burmas-rulers-repress-rohingya-rights-nightmare-17798/

If you were a Muslim that had escaped Burma, would you voluntarily go back to live in a refugee camp in Burma? Would the Burmese government even let you back? Remember they consider the Muslims as illegal immigrants and deny them the right to stay in Burma.

Rohingya: the most persecuted refugees in the world

http://www.amnesty.org.au/refugees/comments/35290/

Yet if the Rohingya imagined that their plight couldn’t get any worse, they were wrong. About 150,000 of an estimated 1.1m Rohingya were pushed into refugee camps, mainly around state capital Sittwe, after two bouts of vicious ethnic cleansing by Rakhine nationalists in 2012 http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21651744-poverty-politics-and-despair-are-forcing-thousands-rohingya-flee-myanmar-authorities-remain

Yes, they're victims. But they're not 100% victims in every sense of the word. If they're in concentration camps (as you allege), how do they get out to board ships? ....and how do they raise lots of money per passenger? And many somehow scrape more bundles of money later, when they're extorted in Thailand.

I realize they're suppressed and miserable. But they're not completely powerless - until, perhaps they're on those rusting hulks with no food and water - floating in the sea.

The history of people in the world has many tales of oppressed people. Most often those histories involve mass killings on Biblical scales. These are (and have been) very tough times for Rohinga in southwestern Burma, but they're not 100% helpless.

Sure there will be economic refugees and that is why I am always for housing them in the region. In this case as they are Muslims they should go to a Muslim country. But some money from parties concerned, Birma, Uk, Thailand, UN ect would make sure that the country that takes them up does not get shafted too much.

With the safety of the migrants secured, Asean can then agree on their origin-identity and decide where they should live. Much of the current talk can be postponed. Right now only action will save the thousands of lives at risk.

Before the knee jerk PC brigade chimes in further, it might do to look at the causes of poverty in Bangladesh/Myanmar. The Rohingya are notorious in their treatment of women and force them to breed like rats. Bangladesh's population is out of control and the root cause of their straitened circumstances. Stopping them breeding with an effective birth control program would be a good start. Much like soi dogs. Flame away