"The Diplomat" launches a new series on the region?s refugee crisis. Here?s why it matters....."In May 2015, thousands of Rohingya refugees from the Rakhine State of Myanmar and economic migrants from Bangladesh were found stranded in the Strait of Malacca off the coast of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. This was the start of the latest round of Southeast Asia?s refugee crisis. The image of the overcrowded, shabby boats full of people ? haunted and hungry, faced with dwindling supplies of food and water ? seized the world?s attention...According to UNHCR?s 2015 figures, Southeast Asia is home to more than 500,000 refugees and asylum-seekers. While the international attention is currently focused on the plight of the Rohingya, the problems extend beyond that group. The crisis engulfs the Kachin, the Shan and the Chin in Myanmar and also includes other groups including the Karen of Northern Thailand. Asylum seekers in Southeast Asia also come from beyond the region itself, with refugees arriving in cities across the region from distant lands such as Bangladesh, China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, North Korea, Syria, Somalia and the Balkans. The recent deportation of 109 Uyghurs ? part of a Muslim minority group in China seeking refuge in Thailand ? indicates the serious and systemic nature of the refugee crisis in the region. Within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), refugees are categorized under the political euphemism ?irregular migration,” a designation which includes both economic and political migrants. The recognition that these two categories are intertwined is helpful to the extent that it shows that a political solution to the refugee question cannot be understood when divorced from the larger issue of migration flows ? including many economic migrants whose experiences are marked by severe exploitation and personal risk. However in practice, the combination of the political and economic has become a way for countries in the region to ignore the urgent humanitarian needs of refugees fleeing conflict and persecution as opposed to those who have migrated to seek economic opportunity..."