Johnson met with Thai Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and later called on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha during his official visit to Thailand, the last leg of his Asian tour, which also took him to Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The Rohingya crisis erupted in August last year after a militant group launched attacks against security outposts in Rakhine, prompting a tough reaction from Myanmar authorities, who killed hundreds and displaced nearly 700,000 people to Bangladesh.

Nay Pyi Taw and Dhaka have reached a deal to repatriate the refugees within two years but the process was delayed last month due to the lack of preparation. Ministers from the two countries will meet later this week to push forward the planned Rohingya return.

Don said after meeting with Johnson that his British counterpart prioritised the Rohinyga crisis but did not specifically ask for help from Thailand on the issue.

“We shared the same concerns over the atrocities in Rakhine state and determined it was necessary to find proper solutions for humanitarian aid. Thailand can help as we have experience in handling hundreds of thousands of refugees over the past 30 years,” Don told reporters yesterday.

Johnson also discussed the issue with Surakiart Sathirathai, chairman of the advisory board for the implementation of recommendations on Rakhine state, and agreed that establishing security in that Myanmar state was an important precondition for returnees from Bangladesh.

UN agencies should be involved in the repatriation of the displaced persons in close consultation with the Myanmar government, Surakiart said, while refraining from using the term “Rohinyga”, who are widely referred to as “Bengalis” in Myanmar, in a pejorative reference that suggests that they are not native residents of the country.

Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, chose Surakairt to lead the board to implement recommendations submitted to the Myanmar government by former UN chief Kofi Annan last August, which coincided with the worsening of the crisis.

Prior to his arrival in Thailand on Sunday, Johnson met Suu Kyi and called for an independent investigation into violence in Rakhine, where torture, murder, rape and massacres have been widely reported. The UN has said Myanmar’s military operation contained elements of “ethnic cleansing”.

Johnson said previously that he would comment on the democratisation in Thailand, but Don said they had just exchanged an overview of political developments in Thailand.

The British minister did not apply any pressure regarding the long-delayed election and was convinced that it would follow the government’s stated “road map” and legal procedures, Don said.

“Elections in Thailand would have no implications for the United Kingdom,” Don said. “It matters to us, not them.”

Japan’s Foreign Minister Taro Kono used a visit to Singapore, the current chair of the ASEAN regional bloc, to call for unity in dealing with Pyongyang, a spokesman said.

“We need to maximise pressure on North Korea, to corner North Korea to change its policy by fully implementing the UN Security Council Resolution,” said Toshihide Ando, deputy press secretary at Japan’s foreign affairs ministry.

“We will continue to work with the United States and South Korea on this issue. But it’s important that we should not be blinded by the charm offensive by North Korea,” he told reporters at a briefing on Kono’s visit.

He said Kono met Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan separately and discussed regional issues, including developments on the Korean Peninsula.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has used the Winter Games hosted by South Korea in Pyeongchang to unleash a diplomatic push for his isolated regime.

Kim sent his powerful sister Kim Yo Jong to the Games where she delivered a letter inviting South Korean President Moon Jae-in to a summit. She is the first member of the dynasty to set foot in the South since the Korean War.

North Korea’s delegation to the Games also included the country’s ceremonial head of state and hundreds of female cheerleaders.

Analysts have said the charm offensive aims to drive a wedge between Seoul and Washington and weaken the world community’s resolve to force the regime to abandon atomic weapons.

A day before the Winter Games, the North staged a military parade in Pyongyang to mark the 70th anniversary of its armed forces, putting its intercontinental ballistic missiles on show.//AFP

The statement was made during a dinner in the company of 217 former communist rebels in Malacañang last Wednesday night, Feb. 7, where it prompted laughter from the audience. President Duterte was found repeatedly mentioning the word “bisong” to his guests, which translates to “vagina” in Bisaya, according to an INQUIRER report today.

President Duterte’s comment was met with criticisms from personalities and netizens who took to social media to air their grievances, with musician and activist Jim Paredes being one who refused to mince words.

“You have no shame. You have no respect for women. Hey, you have a mother, a wife, a mistress and a daughter — they are women!”

Paredes followed his tweet with another, wondering out loud what kind of people laugh over Duterte’s remarks. “What kind of people laugh when Duterte says that soldiers should shoot woman rebels in the vagina?” wrote Paredes. “How come no official, not even congresswoman and women senators has spoken against this crude remark?”

Image: Twitter/@Jimparedes

The New York Times correspondent and human rights activist Carlos Conde meanwhile said President Duterte is out-trumping Trump, whereas editor and writer Joel Pablo Salud commented that the President “has little respect for women and absolutely no respect for the military.”

Image: Twitter/@carloshconde

Image: Twitter/@joel_salud

‘We have been reduced to our genitalia’

Journalist Mags Z. Maglana, on the other hand, shared a screenshot of the INQUIRER’s Twitter report, giving her own piece of mind in her Facebook account.

“Wrong on so many levels. From a leader hailed and defended as having championed women’s rights and a deep understanding of why a revolution is still raging,” wrote Maglana. “And the embarrassing response of an audience that supposedly once took part in the revolutionary movement. We have been reduced to our genitalia.”

Image: Facebook/Mags Z. Maglana

Netizens were quick to respond to Maglana, with one Maita Arreola saying that President Duterte’s pro-women claims are fake.

“Peke ang pro-women claims niya sa Tutoo talaga ay mababa ang pagtingin nya sa mga babae at consistent siya dito.”

Image: Screengrab of comments from Facebook/Mags Z. Maglana

Another commenter, Sharifa Ali-Dans, expressed that it is tragic to hear such statements coming from a leader, but finds the audience’s response even more tragic.

Image: Screengrab of comments from Facebook/Mags Z. Maglana

Award-winning writer and professor Jhoanna Cruz on her part pointed out that there was nothing out of character with what President Duterte did, while also saying that the statement might be mistaken again for “Bisaya humor.” One Rufa Cagoco-Guiam responded to Cruz, telling her that there was nothing “Bisaya” about what President Duterte did.

“No, Jhoanna Cruz; I am pure blooded Bisdak, and I don’t make those kinds of joke; it is not a ‘Bisaya’ trait; it is just his!” Cagoco-Guiam wrote. “Nakakahiya sa (It is a shame to) millions of Bisaya who are upright, both in words and in deeds! And also in their thoughts.”

Image: Screengrab of comments from Facebook/Mags Z. Maglana

‘The epitome of misogyny and fascism terribly rolled in one’

Gabriela Women’s Party fully denounced the words of President Duterte in a statement posted on their official Facebook page, where they referred to the president as a “macho-fascist” over his “shoot in the vagina” remark.

“Duterte latest nasty remark openly encourages violence against women, contributes to the impunity on such, and further confirms himself as the most dangerous macho-fascist in the government right now,” said Gabriela Rep. Emmi de Jesus. “He has further presented himself as the epitome of misogyny and fascism terribly rolled in one.”

Image: Facebook/Gabriela Women’s Party

In the end, Rep. De Jesus said that “Duterte and his minions” should expect more women to speak and reject his style of macho-fascist leadership: “We cannot just take these vile remarks sitting down.”

Investigators said the Antonov An-148 plane went down in the Ramensky district on the outskirts of Moscow at 2:48 pm (1128 GMT) after taking off from Domodedovo airport in the capital.

“Sixty-five passengers and six crew members were on board, and all of them died,” Russia’s office of transport investigations said in a statement.

Three children were among the fatalities on a list published by Russian authorities.

The flight was operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines and was headed for Orsk, a city in the Ural mountains.

Russia’s Investigative Committee said numerous possible causes of the crash would be considered, including weather conditions as the country has experienced record snowfall in recent weeks. It will also , consider human error and technical failure, but it did not mention the possibility of terrorism.

More than 400 people and 70 vehicles had been deployed to the crash site, the country’s emergency ministry said.

The site was enveloped in heavy snow, making it difficult to access, with emergency workers forced to park their vehicles and reach the wreckage by foot. Others used snowmobiles and drones to survey the scene.

Russian transport minister Maksim Sokolov said “genetic expertise” would be needed to help identify the victims, adding that it could “take two or three months”.

– ‘Shock wave’ –

“I felt a shock wave,” Maria, a resident of a village near the crash site, told AFP.

“The windows shook,” she said

The transport investigations office said the plane disappeared from radar screens around four minutes after take-off.

A regional official said the aircraft’s black box had been retrieved.

The Russian-made plane was reportedly seven years old and bought by Saratov Airlines from another Russian airline a year ago.

Saratov was founded in the 1930s and flies to 35 Russian cities. Its hub is Saratov Central Airport in southern Russia.

The governor of the Orenburg region, where the plane was heading, told Russian media that “more than 60 people” on board the plane were from the region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin offered “his profound condolences to those who lost their relatives in the crash,” his spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Putin also cancelled plans to travel to Sochi to meet with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas. Instead, the meeting will take place in Moscow.

 – Grieving relatives –

Local media website Ural56.ru in the Orenburg region showed footage of distressed relatives at Orsk airport, where the plane had been due to land.

Andrei Odintsov, the mayor of Orsk, told Russian state television that six psychologists and four ambulances with medics were working with the families in the small airport.

Orsk is the second biggest city in the Orenburg region, near Russia’s border with Kazakhstan.

A crisis centre was also set up at Domodedovo, Moscow’s second-largest airport in terms of passenger numbers.

Russia has suffered numerous plane crashes, with airlines often operating ageing aircraft in dangerous flying conditions.

A light aircraft crashed in November in Russia’s far east, killing six people on board.

In December 2016 a military plane carrying Russia’s famed Red Army Choir crashed after taking off from the Black Sea resort of Sochi, killing all 92 people on board.

The choir had been due to give a concert to Russian troops operating in Syria.

Pilot error was blamed for that crash.

In March 2016, all 62 passengers died when a FlyDubai jet crashed in bad weather during an aborted landing at Rostov-on-Don airport.

The Antonov An-148 plane, released in 2004, has a range of 3,600 kilometres (2,200 miles) and can carry 80 passengers.//AFP

BATU PAHAT, Malaysia – Kuala Lumpur will honour its agreement with Beijing to extradite 11 Uighur Muslims wanted by China.

However, the Uighurs would be sent back to China only after the conclusion of a police investigation, Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said.

“Malaysian police are conducting an investigation to gather intelligence, especially to check whether any of them is involved in the Islamic State [IS] terrorist group.

“Other countries do not need to worry about the Malaysian government’s deciฌsion over the matter,” he told reporters after a session with students at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia in Batu Pahat on Saturday.

The group of Uighurs had broken out of a detention centre near the Malaysia-Thai border in November after digging holes in the wall and using blankets to climb down walls.

Ahmad Zahid, who is also home minฌister, said Malaysian police had been in contact with their Chinese counterparts to discuss the extradition process.

“Our decision to extradite is based on agreements signed with China, includฌing the Mutual Legal Assistance and the extradition treaty.

He earlier said he had received an official request from China to deport 11 Uighurs who were detained in the counฌtry last year.

“Prior to this, we have extradited Malaysians from China who were involved in falsifying credit cards and other criminal activities. As such we will consider Beijing’s request,” he said.

The 11 Uighur Muslims were among reportedly 20 detainees in an immigraฌtion detention centre in Songkhla’s Sadao district who made a dramatic escape from detention in November.

The escapees were among 300 Uighurs who had been detained in Thailand since 2014 pending an invesฌtigation into their origins.

China has requested that Thailand deport Uighurs, claiming they are milฌitants, with 109 of them already having been sent back to China, sparking interฌnational condemnation.

Thai police said the group made two holes in a wall at the facility with sharp objects before climbing out and lowerฌing themselves to the ground using blanฌkets as ropes at about 3am.

They did not have food and could not communicate with villagers in Thailand and Malaysia, police said.

Six senior immigration police offiฌcers in Songkhla have been transferred to their regional headquarters and face an investigation following the escape.

The Uighurs were being detained for allegedly entering the Kingdom illegalฌly.  They had fled China, reportedly to flee from repression, and wanted to go to Turkey.

Following the forced dissolution of the Cambodia National Rescue Party in November and the arrest of its president, Kem Sokha, many opposition supporters and officials fled Cambodia.

At present, there are estimates of more than 100 Cambodian opposition supporters residing in Thailand, with roughly half of those reportedly seeking asylum.

Sam Sokha was handed over to Cambodian authorities on Thursday evening. She was wanted in Cambodia for allegedly “insulting a public official” and for “incitement to discriminate” after a video was posted to Facebook showed her throwing a sandal at a ruling Cambodian People’s Party billboard bearing the faces of Prime Minister Hun Sen and National Assembly President Heng Samrin.

Soon after she was extradited, Kampong Speu Provincial Court documents were released showing Sokha was sentenced in absentia to two years in prison on January 25.

Kampong Speu Provincial Prison Director Kak Savon yesterday confirmed Sokha was incarcerated in his facility after provincial police delivered her there on Friday evening.

The move – a violation of “customary international law” not to return refugees to countries where they face persecution – deeply concerned international rights groups, who feared a similar approach might be taken with Cambodia’s other political dissents.

Reached after the extradition of Sokha, Interior Ministry spokesman Khieu Sopheak did not deny the government may seek the return of opposition supporters hiding in Thailand.

“Good question. Wait and see,” he said, chuckling, before hanging up.

Evan Jones, from the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network (APRRN), said while Thailand had “a fairly good record when it comes to not returning refugees to their country of origin”, it appeared they had “capitulated to political pressure” in Sokha’s case. “The recent deportation of Sam Sokha sets a dangerous precedent for the countless other Cambodian opposition figures that may be hiding in Thailand,” he said in an email.

“If Thai authorities are willing to return a UNHCR recognised refugee, then sadly there is little hope that they’ll respond humanely or appropriately towards others that may be caught.”

His fears were shared by CNRP Deputy President Mu Sochua, who fled the Kingdom in October and remains abroad.

“Human lives are in danger. Violations of the rights of those with refugee status [are a] violation of human rights that UN member states must not commit,” she said in a message.

In a statement on Friday, Human Rights Watch said Thailand had returned Sokha despite being fully aware she was a refugee and that Western embassies and the United Nations’ refugee body, the UNHCR, were trying to find her a third country for resettlement.

“This case sets a worrisome precedent for how Thailand will treat the many other refugees currently on its soil,” HRW Asia Director Brad Adams said.

Sokha was arrested in Thailand in early January for overstaying her visa – a charge her lawyers were in the process of appealing when she was extradited.

Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) Communications Programme Manager Marte Hellema said via email that “blatantly ignoring” Sokha’s refugee status and sending her back to Cambodia “raises very serious concerns about others that have also sought refuge in Thailand”.

“It indicates a grave underestimation or disregard for the risk to life and liberty refugees face when [sent] back to their countries,” he said. “As such, it is hoped that this particular case will remain an exception, and not turn into a precedent.”

“While the Cambodian government might be inclined to reciprocate this move by its neighbouring country, FORUM-ASIA reminds Cambodia that it is a state party to the UN Refugee Convention, and as such is obligated to uphold all of its provisions, including those relating to non-refoulement.”

Back in October 2016, Cambodia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Chum Sounry said the government was “processing” Thailand’s request to extradite three of their nationals “for insulting the Thai monarchy” – just one of several requests globally to return those who had allegedly violated tough lèse majesté laws.

Sounry could not be reached yesterday to verify the outcome of that request or answer if Cambodia would reciprocate by sending other Thai dissents back from Cambodia. Thai Foreign Ministry officials could not be reached or did not respond to requests for comment.

The device, which costs about RM150 (S$50) and can be obtained online or at some electronics stores, can unlock a car and start its engine by hacking its radio frequency identification (RFID) information.

A source said the device could unlock almost any car with keyless entry.

Car thieves have recruited hackers to install the required software onto their laptops and teach them how to operate the device, according to the source.

“Some local hackers have been approached to offer their services to members of the car theft syndicate,” the source added.

There are three ways to steal the encryption code to unlock these vehicles.

“The device has to be attached to a computer and run with simple frequency monitoring software, which can be downloaded for free from the Internet.

“The software reads the frequency transmitted between the remote key and car system.

“It can capture the frequency code used to lock the car. At the same time, it decrypts the rolling codes transmitted back by the car to the remote key, to unlock the vehicle,” the source explained.

The other method is by “attacking” the car system. The hacking device broadcasts a signal mimicking the remote, tricking the car system into responding with a rolling code.

The device captures the code and decrypts it to unlock the vehicle.

The source said the process could just take a few minutes, depending on the hackers’ code database.

“Thieves have also been known to steal the code from the remote key by broadcasting a radio signal to it.

“This emulates the car communicating with the key, which will automatically send a response.

“The car thieves will then capture and decrypt the frequency transmitted from the key and pair it with the car’s locking system to unlock the vehicle,” the source said.

Many keyless entry systems also included a remote keyless ignition system. As such, when thieves unlock the vehicle, they can also start the car, the source noted.

Remote keyless ignition uses a push button to start the car, not a physical key.

Munich-based Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club (ADAC), the largest auto club in Europe, recently said 110 models from 27 different manufacturers were at risk of being stolen based on the keyless system they used.

In a test conducted by the club, which has 19 million members, the cars were easily “stolen” using the frequency-hacking device.

An ADAC report said they were not only able to unlock the vehicles, but also start them with ease.

“To date, car manufacturers have yet to find a foolproof solution to beat these car thieves,” the ADAC findings concluded.

A police spokesman said they were aware of this high-tech method.

“Car owners should take extra precautions like installing GPS tracking devices or use steering or gear locks to deter thieves,” he said.

He added that keyless entry was impressive, but nothing beats a good physical lock, which made it much harder for thieves.

Statistics of such thefts are not available in Malaysia.

However, according to RAC Ltd, a British automotive services company, the number of thefts reported to 40 police stations in England and Wales rose from 65,783 vehicles in 2013 to 85,688 in 2016.

RAC’s data indicated that the 30 per cent increase was attributed to thieves using the frequency-hacking method to break into cars.

Automotive industry insiders believed the good old way of securing cars – using manual keys and locks – was still effective in preventing vehicle theft.

A spokesman for a carmaker said the longer time taken to steal vehicles with old-fashioned locks discouraged thieves.

Owners are also encouraged to use anti-theft devices such as steering locks, immobilisers, motion sensors and top-grade alarms.

The spokesman said a good tracking device in a vehicle would also be of great help in the event of a theft.

A car owner, who gave his name only as Lee, said he suspected thieves used this method to steal his car.

“Five other friends lost their vehicles within two months of my car being stolen,” he said.

“I believe the thieves used a computer or gadget to open the car doors,” he said, adding that his car used push-button ignition.

He said the thieves also deactivated the alarm when unlocking his luxury car.

Following a noon ceremony in St George’s Chapel the newlyweds will make a “short journey” in the carriage, leaving the castle at around 1 pm (1300 GMT), it said.

“Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are hugely grateful for the many good wishes they have received since announcing their engagement,” the palace said in a statement.

“They are very much looking forward to the day and to being able to share their celebrations with the public.

“They hope this short journey will provide an opportunity for more people to come together around Windsor and to enjoy the atmosphere of this special day.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby will officiate on May 19 as the couple make their marriage vows, while the Dean of Windsor, David Conner, will conduct the wedding service, the palace also confirmed.

After the ceremony the pair and their guests will move to St George’s Hall for a reception, which they will rejoin after the carriage procession.

Later that evening Prince Charles will host another reception for the couple and their “close friends and family”, it added.

Harry and Markle announced their engagement in November and have since made a series of public appearances, drawing crowds of well-wishers.

A royal spokesman confirmed soon after the announcement that the couple had chosen to marry in Windsor, Queen Elizabeth II’s weekend residence.

The stirring plight of refugees across the globe – the Rohingya of Myanmar, the tens of thousands displaced by wars in Syria and Cambodia – is movingly documented in the photography exhibition “Exodus Deja Vu” at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre.

Displayed on the curving walls on the third to fifth floors are 77 images of people dislocated from their lives and homes in Syria, Bangladesh, Cambodia and other places, forced to cross borders into foreign lands and eke out dire existences in temporary camps that all too often become permanent.

Turkish photojournalist Coskun Aral was present when hostilities in Iraq in 1991 drove thousands of citizens towards Turkey. Nation/Rachanon Intharagsa

The images are the work of seven photojournalists of various nationalities, who bear witness to unfolding tragedies in a world increasingly given to nationalism and wary of foreigners.

“The touring exhibition aims to raises awareness about the current crises involving refugees around the globe,” says curator Patrice Vallette. “We hope these powerful images will speak loudly about this serious humanitarian issue.”

Conflict and persecution have forcibly displaced more than 65 million people around the world, it’s noted in the exhibition, and nearly half of them are children.

“The tragedy touching Syria now is reminiscent of refugee crises of the past, such as in Cambodia in the 1970s and more recently in Myanmar,” Vallette says.

Canadian Greg Constantine and Thailand’s Suthep Kritsanavarin focused on the calamity of the Muslim Rohingya, producing anguished black-and-white photos of the “nowhere people” being treated as beings less than human.

Canadian Greg Constantine took countless photos among the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who flooded into southern Bangladesh in 2017.

Constantine captured the waves of Rohingya refugees feeling from Myanmar into Bangladesh last year, a massive volume of people forced into lives of desperation in jam-packed camps.

They are unsure if or when they will be able to return home, and even should the invitation come, they are fearful of returning to the threat of torture, rape and death at the hands of the Myanmar military and anti-Muslim vigilante groups.

“My years of photographing the Rohingya [since 2006],” Constantine says in the show’s catalogue, “still represent only a small window and a slice of time within decades of similar abuse.

“With nearly 75 per cent of the Rohingya community pushed out of their homeland, I am reminded of something a Rohingya man named Jafar said to me in Bangladesh back in 2009. [He said,] ‘Because we don’t have citizenship, we are like a fish out of water, flapping and unable to breathe. If we were given citizenship in Burma, we would be like that fish you catch and then throw back into the water, where he belongs. We are still out of water, and when a fish is out of water, he suffocates to death. We have been out of water for such a long time and we are suffocating. We are suffocating to death.’

“Sadly, his words are more relevant now as they were years ago.”

Thailand’s Suthep Kritsanavarin, in Aceh, Indonesia, in 2009, photographed a Rohingya refugee recovering in hospital from a two-week journey at sea without food or water.

Suthep has been watching the Rohingya since 2008, often using a drone camera to capture overviews of the situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, where most of the refugees lived, and at Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh, where most are now encamped. He’s also shot imagery of the far less-publicised Rohingya camps in Aceh, Indonesia, and Thailand’s Ranong province.

One aerial shot taken in Cox’s Bazaar offers a glimpse of what has become the largest refugee camp in the world, with more than 700 000 people enduring harsh living conditions and near-starvation.

In Ranong in 2009, Suthep took pictures of Rohingya men showing the scars of brutal beatings inflicted by Burmese navy officials after the boat they trusted to carry them to better lives was stopped in the Andaman Sea. They spent two weeks in detention before being sent back to sea, bound for Thailand, with the warning that they’d be killed if they returned to Myanmar.

UNCHR, the United Nations’ refugee agency, says there were 99,956 refugees in nine camps in Thailand as of December, most from ethnic-minority communities in Myanmar and mainly Karen and Karenni.

Harassed and endangered in their homeland, they’ve been crossing the border for more than 30 years, and thousands of babies born in the camps in four provinces along the frontier have grown into adulthood there, having never seen their country of origin.

“The Rohingya crisis is the most serious issue in Southeast Asia, with nearly 700,000 refugees having flocked to Bangladesh in the last four months, joining 300,000 others already there,” says Alistair Boulton of UNHCR.

“There are now nearly a million Rohingya living temporarily in Bangladesh. It’s the worst situation in the region and the fastest rise in a refugee population since the 1990s.”

The best solution, he says, would be for the Myanmar government to recognise the Rohingyas’ fundamental rights.

Syrian Issa Touma’s “Aleppo After War”, 2015, taken 24 hours after airstrikes emptied the district.

Syrian photographer Issa Touma was already shooting street life in Aleppo before the current momentous multinational conflict began. It’s his hometown.

People seemed lively and cheerful in his pre-2012 images, but the war has virtually emptied the city. The buildings that remain standing are pockmarked with bullet holes. The fighting has greatly affected the younger generation, with kids fond of “playing soldier” – when not sitting sullen and sad.

Malaysian Rahman Roslan pointed his camera at Syrian refugees in the Idomeni camps in Greece in 2016, where they’d been sheltered for months after Macedonia closed its border, barring migration further into Europe.

Russian Sergey Ponomarev saw Middle Eastern refugees arriving by boat on the Greek island of Lesbos in 2015.

Russian Sergey Ponomarev watched the great northerly exodus across the Mediterranean in 2015. His pictures were taken on the Greek island of Lesbos and on the boundary lines separating Croatia from Slovenia and Hungary from Serbia. Some of the shots show bloodied refugees attempting to dash across the frontiers.

Frenchman Roland Neveu’s award-winning series “Years of Darkness”, about the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer Rouge, has been seen before in Thailand. The guerrilla triumph drove tens of thousands of Cambodians to the Thai border.

Exhausted and in pouring monsoon rain, a Cambodian refugee rests, perhaps a day’s walk from the Thai border, in Roland Neveu’s “Years of Darkness: Nimit, Western Cambodia”, 1979. Nation/Rachanon Intharagsa

“I never imagined then that the events of 1975 would come to be labelled as ‘the Asian Holocaust of our time’,” Neveu writes in the catalogue.

Coskun Aral, a Turk, was in Iraq in 1991, when streams of citizens fled to the slopes of snowy mountains to escape Saddam Hussein’s chemical weapons and the “shock and awe” of Desert Storm. Their destination was Turkey.

They were Kurds, Yazidis, Turkmens and Assyrians, walking an enormous distance in debilitating conditions. “Many lost their lives,” Aral says. “I saw mothers and fathers carrying the dead bodies of their children.

“I hoped that I’d never witness such suffering again. Yet it’s 2016 and the suffering has never ended. The deja-vu of exodus remains the same, every now and then.”

Supported by UNHCR, the French Embassy, Asylum Access Thailand and Amnesty International Thailand, the exhibition seeks to create “a unified picture of people speaking different languages and leading different lives, but sharing the same human rights”.

The exhibition on the fifth floor also displays the belongings of refugees from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Somalia and Palestine who immigrated to Thailand.

Piyanut Kotsan of Amnesty International Thailand acknowledges that Thais tend not to be “fond of helping refugees” and blames it on a lack of understanding.

“So we’re also doing public activities, both online and offline, to encourage more conversation about refugees and why they need our support.”

The exhibition on the fifth floor also displays the belongings of refugees from Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Somalia and Palestine who immigrated to Thailand. Nation/Rachanon Intharagsa

 THE PEOPLE MOST IN NEED

– The exhibition “Exodus Deja-Vu” at the Bangkok Art and Culture ends on Sunday. It travels next to Berlin, Munich, Paris, Geneva and Toronto.

– Asylum Access Thailand will host a discussion on “Alternative Living for Immigrant Children” on Thursday at 6pm on the fifth floor.

– Learn more on its Facebook page, and about the exhibition at “Exodus Deja-Vu” on Facebook and at http://www.BACC.co.th.

The Antonov An-148 plane operated by the domestic Saratov Airlines was flying to Orsk, a city in the Urals, and crashed in the Ramensky district outside Moscow. Russian news agencies reported 65 passengers and 6 crew were on board.