Refugees in Thailand, between acceptance and expulsion

The Southeast Asian country is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention. In 2019 it established a National Selection Mechanism empowering police to screen applicants, most of whom come from neighbouring Myanmar, where a civil war is raging. Many others are stateless.

Bangkok (AsiaNews) – Thailand’s new refugee screening system has raised many doubts and questions in the Southeast Asian country, which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Designed to afford greater protection for refugees and asylum seekers, the new regulation, the National Screening Mechanism (NSM), was put in place in 2019 under then-Prime Minister General (Ret) Prayut Chan-ocha, who ruled the country until last May’s election.

The Royal Thai Police and the Ministry of Interior were given the authority to run the NSM, with the power to decide who would be granted “Protected Person Status” and be eligible to stay and who would be subjected to an expulsion order.

So far, ambiguous rules and the discretionary power exercised by officials have led to many rejections. It is unclear whether the new government, established in September, can improve prospects for refugees and asylum seekers who far too often are caught between acceptance and expulsion.

Thailand is host to some 90,000 refugees, mostly from Myanmar, fleeing a civil war that has raged for more than two years, or from older waves of persecution, held in nine different camps along the Thai-Myanmar border.

Until now, few refugees from Myanmar have been allowed into the country, and only for brief periods on the condition that they had relatives in Thailand or that some co-ethnic would act as their guarantor.

Another 5,000 individuals so-called urban refugees flew to the capital Bangkok after fleeing countries in South Asia (for example, Christians escaping discrimination and violence in Pakistan), the Middle East, Africa or China.

To these must be added half a million stateless people, without a recognised nationality, who live in a legal grey zone, especially in the northern tribal areas, with limited rights that prevent their integration and access to basic services.

• thailand
• myanmar
• refugees
• asylum seekers
• protected person status