A diplomatic row between Thailand and Malaysia over the fate of 131 Thai Muslims who fled to Malaysia in August, allegedly to escape ethnic violence and repression, has worsened as it begins to gain international attention.

Indeed, Thailand insists that the "escape" of the refugees was engineered by separatist Muslim militants precisely to drag United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) into the ethnic conflict simmering in its southern provinces of Narathiwat, Yala and Pattani.