Global Overview 2012: People internally displaced by conflict and violence - Thailand

Number of IDPsUndetermined
Percentage of total populationUndetermined
Start of displacement situation2004
Peak number of IDPs (year)Undetermined
New displacement in 2012Undetermined
Causes of displacementx International armed conflict
✓ Internal armed conflict
x Deliberate policy or practice of arbitrary displacement
x Communal violence
✓ Criminal violence
✓ Political violence
Human development index103

The government has been confronting Malay Muslim separatist groups in southern Thailand for more than a century, and low-level violence continued to affect the provinces of Narathiwat, Pattani and Yala in 2012. By the end of year, an estimated 5,500 people had been killed and 9,700 injured since 2004. Attacks on schools and teachers, which insurgents see as symbols of Thai occupation, intensified towards the end of the year, causing a rise in transfer applications from Buddhist teachers.

The Buddhist minority has been disproportionately affected by the violence. The number of people displaced since 2004, when the violence resumed, is unknown, but available information suggests that as many as 240,000 people may have fled their homes. This would account for around 30 per cent of the Buddhist population and ten per cent of Malay Muslims.

Some IDPs fled in direct response to the violence, but many have moved because of its adverse effects on the economy and the provision of education and social services. Most IDPs have moved to urban areas inside the affected provinces where, like the rest of the population, they remain at risk of violence. Buddhist IDPs have been more likely to leave the three provinces.

The government set up a $39 million fund in September to purchase Buddhist land in an effort to ensure that it does not fall into the hands of groups associated with the insurgency. IDPs would be able to redeem their land should they choose to return. The government has not taken any steps to assess the extent of displacement, nor has it adopted any other measures to address the issue. It has, however, provided some assistance to victims of insurgent violence and their families.

The absence of the UN in the three provinces has seriously limited its capacity to report on human rights violations committed by any of the parties to the conflict, or on the extent and consequences of the related displacement.

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