03 June 2005

THE NUMBERS



According to the US Committee for Refugees (USCR), a non-partisan private organization, Thailand hosted over 420,000 refugees and asylum seekers at the end of 2003, the overwhelming majority, 405,000, of whom were from Myanmar, including about 140,000, mostly Karen and Karenni, living in camps, of whom 20,000 were unregistered; an estimated 200,000 ethnic Shan living among the local population, and at least 50,000 from persecuted ethnic minorities living as illegal migrants.

The 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as a person who “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”. 96

Thailand does not employ the term “refugee” in reference to any of the populations displaced on its soil. The general term employed since 1954 has been “displaced person”, following the Ministry of Interior’s 1954 “Regulation Concerning Displaced Persons from Neighboring Countries”, which defines a displaced person as “he who escapes from dangers due to an uprising, fighting or war, and enters in breach of the Immigration Act”. 97

Thailand has not allowed the estimated 300,000 ethnic Shan refugees living along the northern border to enter designated camps, nor has UNHCR been allowed access to the Shan.

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