U.S. Committee for Refugees World Refugee Survey 1998 - Thailand

  At the end of 1997, Thailand hosted more than 200,000 refugees, including 130,000 from Burma, 62,000 from Cambodia, 13,000 from Laos, and more than 600 from other countries. USCR visited Thailand twice in 1997, assessing conditions for Burmese refugees in May and Cambodian refugees in July. USCR repeatedly called on Thailand to treat Burmese and Cambodian asylum seekers according to internationally accepted refugee protection principles. During 1997, some 9,000 Cambodians, who had entered Thailand earlier in the year, repatriated. According to UNHCR, 127 Vietnamese who had been in Thailand for many years also repatriated; 7 Vietnamese refugees remained in Thailand. An estimated 350,000 or more Burmese were living in Thailand in refugee-like circumstances. Thailand's record as a refugee-hosting country remained mixed and controversial. Thailand is not a signatory to the UN Refugee Convention, but it permitted more than 70,000 Cambodian and 17,000 Burmese refugees to enter during 1997. At year's end, it hosted the second largest refugee population in East Asia. But it initially denied admission to many of those new refugees, permitting them to enter only when their lives were at immediate risk; it forcibly returned refugees to Burma, endangering their lives; and it failed to protect refugee camps from attack by Burmese troops and allied fighters. Refugees from Burma Tens of thousands of ethnic minority Burmese refugees have lived in camps just inside the Thai border since the mid 1980s. Although Thailand does not officially regard them as refugees and does not permit UNHCR to protect them, it does permit NGOs to assist them. At the end of the year, 107,300 ethnic minority Burmese lived in camps. Some 9,000 ethnic Mon who had been living in refugee camps in Thailand but whom the Thai authorities forcibly relocated to camps inside Burma in recent years continued to receive assistance from NGOs based in Thailand. Until the early 1990s, the refugees lived relatively quietly in small camps assisted by NGOs. Although the Thai authorities did not permit UNHCR access to the camps, there were no significant security concerns. Since the mid-1990s, however, Thailand has toughened its attitude toward Burmese refugees, while improving its relations with Burma's ruling State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC). Following a May site visit, USCR held a press conference in Bangkok, releasing a report saying, "Thai-Burmese economic interests threaten Burmese refugees in Thailand." The report explained how Burma and Thailand now regard the refugees as an impediment to economic development projects such as the natural gas pipeline being built from the Burmese coast to Thailand. In recent years, Thailand has barred Burmese refugees from entering, forcibly repatriated them, temporarily blocked aid to them, refused to permit them to build adequate shelters, harassed them, and failed to protect them. Most of these problems have occurred in areas controlled by the 9th Infantry Division of the Thai First Army, well known for its hostility toward refugees. SLORC offensives inside Burma against Karen insurgents in 1997 forced thousands of Karen to flee to the Thai-Burmese border. SLORC human rights abuses such as forced relocation, forced porterage, and forced labor also caused Burmese refugees to flee. Thailand maintained its policy of granting only temporary refuge to people fleeing fighting. Even in those cases, it refused to recognize them as "refugees," but rather labeled them "persons displaced by fighting." Such a label makes it easier for Thailand to claim that the Burmese need no ongoing asylum and can return to Burma when fighting ends. In 1996, Burmese troops and insurgents associated with the Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA), a group that broke away in 1995 from the predominantly Christian, anti-Rangoon Karen National Union (KNU), often attacked Burmese refugee camps in Thailand. The attackers killed several refugees, burned down hundreds of homes, and abducted and forcibly returned dozens of refugees to Burma. Those attacks continued unabated during 1997. In both 1996 and 1997, Thailand most often did nothing to prevent the attacks or protect the refugees. Observers believe that the attacks were intended to pressure the KNU into accepting a cease-fire with SLORC, and to further anger Thailand, so that Thailand will ultimately push the refugees back into Burma. Major attacks by Burmese troops and the DKBA on refugee camps in 1997 included: an attack on Char Lae camp in early January that left two dead and scores injured; the burning of Wangka and Don Pa Kiang camps in late January, which left nearly 10,000 refugees homeless (Thai soldiers did prevent an attack on Mae La camp the same night); an attack on Karen asylum seekers living outside camps in early April in which one was killed and another seriously wounded; and an attack on Ta Per Poo camp in late April, killing one refugee and making hundreds homeless. Often during the year, Thai authorities refused to permit fleeing Burmese to enter Thailand, or forcibly returned to Burma refugees who had managed to enter. The most egregious incidents included: the refusal to admit 500 male asylum seekers on February 24; the refoulement (forced repatriation) of 230 male refugees on February 25; the refoulement of 430 Shan refugees in May; the repatriation of 400 Mon refugees under questionable circumstances on June 6 and 1,000 Karen from Huay Satu in late June; and the refoulement of more than 1,100 Karen, confirmed by a UNHCR fact-finding mission, in mid-November. Informed observers estimated that Thailand forcibly returned more than 5,000 refugees to Burma in 1997. Many subsequently reentered Thailand, and were among the estimated 17,000 new Burmese refugees there at year's end. The situation for ethnic Shan Burmese refugees, who are closely related to local people in northern Thailand, was particularly difficult. Thailand did not permit them to live in camps, forcing them to join the ranks of the hundreds of thousands of undocumented and therefore "illegal" migrants in Thailand. No reliable estimates existed of the number of Shan in Thailand, but an estimated 20,000 Shan who are clearly refugees (some observers said as many as 80,000) have sought refuge in Thailand in recent years. Some 2,600 former students and pro-democracy activists who fled to Thailand after SLORC crushed Burma's fledgling democracy movement also lived in Thailand, mostly in Bangkok. More than 500 of these, some of whom were seeking third-country resettlement, lived in the so-called safe area camp. Hundreds of thousands of other Burmese (estimates range from 350,000 to 750,000) lived and worked in Thailand without documentation. Many may have gone to Thailand for reasons similar to those of the Burmese who are considered refugees. USCR regards them as refugee-like persons. USCR Advocacy on Burmese Shortly after the attacks on Wangka and Don Pa Kiang camps in January and the Thai authorities' refusal to permit fleeing refugees to enter, USCR joined other NGOs in condemning the attacks and calling on Thailand to admit Burmese fleeing in the wake of the new SLORC offensive. Following USCR's May site visit to the Thai Burmese border, a USCR report on Burmese refugees called on Thailand to provide safe haven to Burmese refugees fleeing SLORC human rights abuses, provide the refugees greater security, and permit UNHCR a full time presence at the border. In July, USCR and other NGOs wrote to the Thai government to express concern about the circumstances in which 400 male refugees were repatriated. USCR joined Human Rights Watch and other NGOs in expressing concern to UNHCR about the incident. UNHCR, which had observers at the repatriation, responded that "at no time was force and coercion employed by the Thai military in order to induce return." Later in July, USCR hosted a briefing by congressional staff who had traveled to the Thai-Burmese border. Refugees from Cambodia A July coup and subsequent violence in Cambodia drove thousands of Cambodians to the Thai-Cambodian border during 1997. The violence pitted supporters of Hun Sen, Cambodia's second prime minister, against various opposition parties. Some Cambodians managed to fly to Bangkok or go by road to Aranyaprathet, but not all could‹or wanted to‹enter Thailand. During the first few weeks after the coup, nearly 15,000 people gathered at the border town of O'Smach, opposite Thailand's Surin Province. Several thousand others gathered near O'Bei Choan, north of Poipet. Initially, Thai officials indicated that they were prepared to grant the Cambodians refuge, a policy that USCR welcomed in a July 8 letter to Thailand's foreign minister. Subsequently, however, Thailand said it would not admit any Cambodian refugees unless fighting immediately threatened their lives. USCR protested the policy shift in a July 24 statement. USCR traveled to Thailand in late July/early August to assess the situation for Cambodian refugees. USCR visited Bangkok and Aranyaprathet and found that by July 31, some 270 Cambodians had applied to the UNHCR office in Bangkok for recognition as refugees and that 15 to 20 others continued to apply daily in early August. UNHCR assisted those whom it recognized as refugees On August 1, when fighting near Poipet threatened more than 3,000 displaced Cambodians gathered at O'Bei Choan, Thailand permitted them entry. Several days later, after the fighting ended, Thailand said the refugees had to return to Cambodia. Most returned voluntarily, and local authorities assisted them. About 400 refused to return, fearing Hun Sen's troops, who had captured O'Bei Choan. Thai authorities took the 400 to Surin Province and then sent them across the border into O'Smach. USCR wrote to UNHCR, saying that some of those returned may not have been allowed to apply for asylum. UNHCR responded that 17 individuals had expressed concern about returning to O'Bei Choan but had voluntarily agreed to join the group of 400 being transferred to O'Smach. By the second week of August, as many as 30,000 displaced Cambodians had sought refuge at O'Smach. Whether any sought to enter Thailand was unclear. Thailand, however, reiterated that it would permit to enter only those whose lives were at immediate risk. Thai authorities allowed an international NGO to cross into O'Smach to provide medical care and UNHCR to transport food to O'Smach from Thailand. In an editorial in the August 16 International Herald Tribune, USCR warned that if Thailand blocked entry to the Cambodians at O'Smach, their lives could be at stake. USCR further warned that if Thailand did permit them entry, forcibly returning them after fighting subsided without allowing them to apply for asylum would be a violation of international law. When fighting neared O'Smach in mid-August, Thailand did permit the Cambodians at O'Smach to enter. Those who entered Thailand numbered fewer then 20,000. Thai authorities set up facilities for the refugees in Surin Province and, although Thailand initially barred international agencies from helping, it later permitted UNHCR and NGOs to assist the Thai Red Cross and Surin health authorities, who were already assisting the Cambodians. Although USCR visited Surin Province after the refugees entered, Thailand denied USCR access to the refugees. Thailand refused to recognize the Cambodians as refugees, labeling them people displaced by fighting. Thailand continued to insist that the refugees must return to Cambodia as soon as the fighting stopped. USCR again protested Thailand's policy in an August 26 letter to the Thai embassy in Washington, D.C. USCR said, "They are refugees and need protection." In late August, fighting in western Cambodia, south of Poipet, forced some 34,000 other Cambodians into Thailand's Trat Province. They were joined by 6,000 more who fled fighting in the same area in late September. Fighting and new refugee flows continued throughout the year. Also during late 1997, about 9,000 of the refugees in Surin Province repatriated to Cambodia. Some 3,400 repatriated with UNHCR assistance between October and December. Most returned from Surin by land, but 57, mostly exiled politicians, flew back to Phnom Penh on December 17. The rest repatriated without assistance. In December, according to UNHCR, approximately 62,000 Cambodian refugees remained in Thailand, of whom some 15,000 were in Surin Province. Refugees from Laos UNHCR reported that 1,340 refugees from Laos (960 Hmong and 380 lowland Lao) remained in Thailand. USCR also regarded some 10,000 Laotians, mostly Hmong, who had fled from the refugee camps in recent years to avoid repatriation, as refugees. UNHCR recognized more than 600 persons of other nationalities as refugees.