A LOOK at the Rohingya, a stateless Muslim minority group from Myanmar who are at the centre of a controversy over Thailand's treatment of migrant workers:

HISTORY:
The Rohingya are believed to descend from seventh century Arab settlers whose state was conquered by the Burmese in 1784. The group has inhabited what is now western Myanmar for centuries.

CHARACTERISTICS:
The Rohingya come from the Myanmar state of Rakhine, but their physical appearance and language are more similar to the Bengalis of neighbouring Bangladesh.

CITIZENSHIP:
Nearly 800,000 Rohingya live in Myanmar, but have not been granted citizenship.

STATELESS MIGRANTS:
Faced with persecution because they are Muslims living in a Buddhist country, the Rohingya have fled abroad for decades. As many as 2 million have set up communities from Saudi Arabia to Malaysia where most work illegally. About a half-million Rohingya escaped during military crackdowns in 1978 and 1991, the majority of them moved to Bangladesh. Many remain exiled in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Thailand and Malaysia.

HIGH SEAS JOURNEY:
Since 2006, Bangladesh has made it harder to get passports, so the Rohingya began making the dangerous journey by boat to Thailand and then overland to Malaysia for work. -- AP