Author: Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation (TCR)
Year: April 2016
Country: Thailand
While refugees live across the country, the majority reside within nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar Border and in Bangkok. Refugees and asylum-seekers include stateless persons such as the Rohingya and Uighur, those fleeing ethnic violence in Myanmar, religious persecution in Pakistan and war in Syria.
Thailand’s refugee rights crisis continues to be a problem. As of 2015, Thailand is not a State Party to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, and does not have domestic laws on asylum.
Thailand operates under the 1979 Immigration Act, which considers asylum seekers and refugees as illegal immigrants and subjects them to arbitrary arrest, detention and deportation.
While refugees live across the country, the majority reside within nine camps along the Thai-Myanmar Border and in Bangkok. Refugees and asylum-seekers include stateless persons such as the Rohingya and Uighur, those fleeing ethnic violence in Myanmar, religious persecution in Pakistan and war in Syria.