Just as most of the frolicking tourists were oblivious to the boatpeople laid out like so many sardines in the sun, so the nations of Southeast Asia collectively go about ignoring the Rohingya.

A summit next month of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, appropriately in Thailand where the Rohingyas' desperate situation has been exposed, may change all that. Boatloads of these persecuted people, once a problem for Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Malaysia, are now turning up in the waters of Indonesia and India's isolated Andaman and Nicobar island chains.

Did the boats end up in Indonesia and India because of a covert and horrifying change of policy in Thailand? That question is being examined by the widening circle of governments involved, along with human rights groups. And because witnesses to the tragedy of the Rohingya boatpeople now include day-trip tourists from Britain, Australia, Hong Kong, Germany, Russia and Scandinavia, the Rohingya may finally get the international attention they have long deserved.

The Andaman coastline is home to some of the world's leading five-star resorts. It was also a scene of devastation when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on Boxing Day 2004, killing 5,400 tourists and villagers in the area. Now the tsunami coast is home to a secret, exile island where the Thai army hides its unwelcome visitors before releasing them on paddle-powered vessels which are barely seaworthy.

It is thought that boatpeople land along the Andaman coast for two reasons: because they run out of food on their sea journey to Malaysia, or because they hope to proceed to Malaysia on foot. Malaysia is the goal for most Rohingya, who are Sunni Muslims.

The Rohingya are mostly from Rakhine state in western Myanmar. They have suffered at the hands of that nation's junta since 1978, when a military operation supposedly aimed at targeting illegal aliens resulted in widespread killings, rapes and destruction of mosques. That year 200,000 fled to Bangladesh to escape persecution, according to Amnesty International.

According to rights advocates and others who work with the Rohingya, people-smugglers known as 'brokers' are the prime cause of the flow of human traffic south from Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Because some of the brokers are known for dealing in arms as well as people, and the refugees are all young and male, the Thai army fears the latest boatloads of Rohingya may be destined to join the insurgent conflict in the deep south of the country, which Bangkok blames on its Muslim minority.

Two aspects of the Thais' treatment of the boatpeople have aroused criticism. Amnesty International has accused the Thai army of torturing suspected insurgents, while Refugees International condemned the military for forcing the Rohingya back out to sea.

The Thai tourist industry goes to great lengths to emphasise that the insurrection in the south remains hundreds of kilometres from the safe and secure Andaman coastline. The chances of the conflict ever spreading to the Andaman coast, where Buddhists and Muslims live contentedly together, are remote. But the activities of the army have, for the first time, if inadvertently, connected tourism on the Andaman coast with the conflict.

It happened because of a change in policy. In past years, the Thai navy, marine police and regular police would apprehend boatpeople between November and April and process them through the immigration department.

But since early December, the army has become involved for the first time, overseeing the collection of Rohingya boatpeople and hiding them in the jungle on the island of Koh Sai Daeng. Then the army sends them back out to sea in large numbers, hoping they will drift away, perhaps to India or Indonesia if their food holds out, or to an uncertain fate on the high seas.

Those who live near the exile island and the local army headquarters say the army bought two large boats recently, probably to carry the Rohingya out to sea. According to advocate Chris Lewa, who runs the Bangkok-based human rights group Arakan Project, the Rohingya are caught on the margins between South Asia and Southeast Asia and have been disowned by governments in both regions.

Connections with the small community of Rohingya in Malaysia lead them to believe a better life would be possible if only they could get there. Brokers offer a passage for the equivalent of 10,000 baht (HK$2,250) to 12,000 baht, and poorer would-be voyagers win reduced fares if they round up other passengers, rights groups say.

One of the reasons the army is concerned about security is that only males are coming. Ms Lewa says the more conservative Rohingya townships keep women indoors and would not allow them to undertake such a dangerous 10- to 12-day voyage south.

Those who have been forced to flee Myanmar, where they are denied citizenship, to Bangladesh, are no longer able to register as refugees, since the 28,000 who are already in rough camps there are considered the upper limit.

'Bangladesh treats the Rohingya badly, and so of course does Burma [Myanmar],' Ms Lewa said.

One Arakan Project colleague was jailed briefly in Bangladesh and discovered a community of 700 'released prisoners' - Rohingya who have completed their sentences for immigration breaches. But, as stateless citizens, they cannot leave jail without gaining recognition as refugees, which is impossible. 'Some of them have been in this situation for up to 10 years,' Ms Lewa said. 'It is just appalling. I hope to make it my next project.'

Life is so harsh in Bangladesh and Myanmar for the Rohingya that one man, who narrowly escaped death from thirst on a failed journey to the promised land to the south, told her: 'I am going to try again because life in Burma is worse than the time we spent adrift on the sea.'

So they come south, believing that 'the Thai police are very nice' and imagining a relatively well-paid job as a construction worker in Malaysia.

Elements within other branches of the Thai military have already suggested that the Rohingya exodus should be examined by the United Nations.

Representatives of the South China Morning Post have been supplied with telling photographs over the past six weeks by tourists, the Royal Thai Navy, marine police and regular police.

For one young Australian tourist, that day at Donald Duck Beach on Similan Eight island left indelible memories. It was a snorkelling celebration with three close friends to mark her 23rd birthday.

'We didn't know what was happening, but what we saw was horrible,' she said. 'The day started as such fun, and it was such a contrast at the other end of the beach. At first, we couldn't believe what we were seeing. It was awful. They were treated just like animals.'