THE deaths of almost 400 asylum seekers after their boat sank off the Indonesian coast shows the desperate straits these people will go to flee the countries from which they have come.
It demonstrates the need for nations to work together to set up more effective ways of helping these people so that they are not driven to undertake unsafe voyages over hundreds or thousands of kilometres.
As Afghanistan is pounded by further US strikes, the danger is that millions more refugees will leave their homeland in search of peace and safety.
They are already massing at the borders to escape the crisis in their country.
If the US and other nations are determined to strike back against the Taliban, they must take greater responsibility for the exodus of refugees that this will cause.
