Description:
Summary:
"Despite decades of experience with hosting millions of refugees, Thailand?s refugee
policies remain fragmented, unpredictable, inadequate and ad hoc, leaving refugees
unnecessarily vulnerable to arbitrary and abusive treatment. Thailand is not a party to the
1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Refugee Convention) or its 1967
Protocol. It has no refugee law or formalized asylum procedures. The lack of a legal
framework leaves refugees and asylum seekers in a precarious state, making their stay in
Thailand uncertain and their status unclear.
Burmese refugees in Thailand face a stark choice: they can stay in one of the refugee
camps along the border with Burma and be relatively protected from arrest and summary
removal to Burma but without freedom to move or work. Or, they can live and work outside
the camps, but typically without recognized legal status of any kind, leaving them at risk of
arrest and deportation. It is a choice refugees should not be compelled to make. Many of
those who decide to live in the camps do so without being formally registered or
recognized. And many of those living outside the camps find the process of applying for
and gaining migrant worker status to be prohibitively expensive and out of reach, leaving
them vulnerable to exploitation, arrest, and deportation.
This report looks at the lives both of refugees inside the camps on the Thai-Burma border
as well as of Burmese living outside of the camps, many of whom are, in fact, refugees,
even though they have not been officially recognized as such, in large part because they
are precluded from lodging refugee claims with the government or with the United Nations
High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). This report also looks at the situation of
refugees and asylum seekers from other nationalities and their difficulties in finding
predictable and sufficient protection in Thailand. Finally, the report looks at the situation
of all migrants in Thailand, including refugees and asylum seekers, in their encounters
with police and other authorities, including when faced with being detained in Thailand?s
Immigration Detention Centers (IDCs) and with deportation or expulsion from the country..."
Source/publisher:
Human Rights Watch
Date of Publication:
2012-09-13
Date of entry:
2012-09-13
Grouping:
- Individual Documents
Category:
Language:
English