“At almost no time since Burmese asylum seekers started arriving on Thai soil in 1984 has the need for protection of this group been greater. Human rights violations inside Burma continue almost a decade after the State Law and Order Restoration Council (SLORC) seized power in Burma in September 1988. The announcement on November 15, 1997 that SLORC had been dissolved and replaced by the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) has done nothing to improve the situation, and refugees continue to flow into Thailand. As of September 1998, there were over 110,000 refugees in camps along the Thai-Burmese border and hundreds of thousands more in Thailand who were unable or unwilling to stay within the refugee camps but who had suffered clear abuse at the hands of the Burmese government. Deportations of undocumented Burmese migrants, some of whom would have a clear claim to refugee status had they been permitted to make one, were also on the increase. Thailand is not a party to the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees (Refugee Convention), the main international treaty for the protection of refugees, nor to its 1967 Protocol, despite being a member of the Executive Committee (ExCom) of the High Commissioner’s Programme of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 1979. Thailand nevertheless has obligations towards refugees based in customary international law, the most important of which is the obligation not to send refugees back to any country where they are likely to face persecution; this is the principle of non-refoulement.” – Publisher’s description Contents I. SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations II. INTRODUCTION The Thai Government UNHCR III. THAI-BURMA RELATIONS IV. A PROFILE OF BURMESE REFUGEES IN THAILAND The “Students” Thai government policy Protection and the role of UNHCR Refugee status determination procedures The Ethnic Minorities Reasons for flight The Mon The Karen The Karenni Refugees from Shan State Thai policy towards ethnic minority refugees The southern border The central border region The northern border region Protection and the role of UNHCR V. CONCLUSION