RI Guest Blogger: Eileen Shields-West on Burma Asylum Seekers

Refugees International Board Vice-Chair Eileen Shields-West recently finished a mission in Thailand focusing on the situation for Burmese refugees and how the impact of the ongoing conflict inside Burma affects the stability of neighboring countries.

When I traveled to Mae Sot on the Thai-Burma border, I was upset to see that so many Burmese who are fleeing persecution and fighting in Burma are forced to endure an incredibly difficult situation when they arrive in Thailand. There are140,000 official refugees in seven camps along the Thai-Burma border who make few demands, have little to do and wait for their fate to be decided. Then, there are all of the others who have not been able to register as refugees after crossing the border into Thailand. Even the 75-80 people who recently arrived here after the September crackdown by the Burmese junta have no clear path to asylum.

Standing in line also are thousands of “slip-holders” – 1,000 in Bangkok alone – who at one point were given a slip by the UNHCR, designating them as individuals seeking refugee status. They have never been processed by the Provincial Admissions Boards (PABs) – the agency that the Royal Thai Government put in control of registration and admission to the camps.

There are also thousands of “new entrants” who either recently fled across the border, or had been in Thailand for some time but were unable to enter the crowded camps. We were told that there were 3,000 “new entrants” alone in Mae La Camp which is situated just a few miles from the border and houses about 44,000 Karen refugees from the Karen State in Burma. These people are not entitled to food or shelter, usually sharing with relatives already in the camp, nor to participate in the large international re-settlement program now underway. The “unregistered” are also under constant threat of deportation by the Thai officials who run the camp. And I can only guess how many of the estimated 1.5 million migrant workers from Burma now in Thailand would opt to apply for refugee status if a system were in place.

All these people are in limbo, waiting for Godot, so to speak. One reason that the Thai Government gives for shutting down registration is that the camps are already cramped and that there is no more space. Critics counter that the Thai government is really concerned that if officials increase registration, more refugees will come into the country. But if they procrastinate, the problem will go away.

But one of the things that is clear from our mission to Thailand and the worsening situation in Burma is that the problem is not going to disappear. Something needs to be done. The Thai government needs to put in place a reliable registration system to recognize all those who are truly refugees so that they can receive identity documents, the rights that come with refugee status and the opportunity to be permanently resettled in a third country, if that is what they choose. This is particularly imperative now as more are coming across the border every day, fleeing the latest suppression in Burma. Otherwise, all of those “in limbo” will continue to live in a world of constant fear and uncertainty.