Burmese refugees caught in bureaucratic nightmare

As many as 2,000 Karenni villagers made homeless by Burma Army offensives since 2006, are still without official refuge status in neighboring Thailand. Some of the refugees have arrived as recently as March this year and are without official recognition and have to survive on handouts. A policy shift by the Thai government towards refugees and a lack of official clout from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, have left these people vulnerable and without official access to shelter, food and security. In the past Thailand has a commendable record on its treatment of refugees on its borders, but since 2009 it has used the military to determine its border policies towards refugees. In recent months Thailand’s military has overseen the ‘volunteer’ repatriation of Karen refugees north of Mae Sot back to Burma, in 2009 the heavy-handed treatment of Rohingya refugees from Burma and Bangladeshi and the forced repatriation of H’mong refugees back to uncertain futures in Laos. Thailand is not a signature to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol, but it does have an obligation under the international law of non-refoulement (non-return) of persons to places where they are at... read more