Since the latest round of violence in Myanmar’s western Rakhine state, it is estimated that about 290,000 starving and terrified Rohingya people have fled over the border to Bangladesh. They bring with them harrowing stories of the army plundering and burning down their villages, shooting their families and even throwing babies into rivers to drown.

By any measure, it constitutes a grave, extraordinary human-rights crisis. Considering that around a million Rohingya lived in Myanmar, it means that in the space of just three weeks or so, more than a quarter of these people have been driven from their homes.