Rohingya refugee crisis in Thailand

"How can Thailand manage with  Rohingya refuges crisis if Thailand did not ratify in protocol.

who is Rohingya/where are they coming from?

   Rohingya migration issue is one of the outcomes of the ethnic and geo political situation in Myanmar. Normally, These minorities have been living in Rakhine city or Arakan since a  long time ago. They speak Bengali language and they are primarily Muslim. The Government of Myanmar does not identify them as citizen. That’s make their basic rights unprotected.  This makes them feel that people in the country want to push them away and treat them as a low class citizen. Rohingya are threatened both of physically and mentally. They cannot access any public service or find a job. Thus they are seeking out the new places to survive.  

Rohingya move to Thailand

    In and about 1,000 Rohingya peoples have been displaced and have moved to Thailand since 2006, On the first time they were evacuated and were arrested by Thai military at Rayong coast.Thailand has not ratified Convention and protocol obligations about refugees rights and Thailand had no measure to receive them and does not recognize the status and rights of refugees. In the Refugee Convention and protocol obligations about refugees rights. The first country where immigrants arrive  must provide basic human rights support. Then, it must investigate the status of immigrants.  

  In Thailand, the initial response to the crisis is to push responsibility to other countries first. In case, if the immigrants arrive in the territory of Thailand, It will provide basic human rights, such as medicine and clothing and temporary shelter. However after the initial aid, these migrants will be turned away back in to the high seas.  NGOs and Thailand government cooperate to help them. On the other hand, we do not have  funding to  support  them all.   In 2016, Thailand government invited UNCHR organization in Thailand. And they made 9 Refugees camp on 9 border cities of Burma and Thailand. So these days, helped by UNCHR can better manage the Refugees crisis in Thailand. But Thailand refuses to admit the Rohingya  Refugees to live in Thailand along.

 UNHCR  has 3 durable solutions in it’s protocol, –first is Repatriation (Refugees can return to their country if situation there got better) , second is  Resettlement (a third country have to accept them cause the first country have less ability to help them) and the last one is Local Integration (become a  part of that country).  

 Problem and solution 

   For Thailand, the Resettlement  way was optimal. It’s does not mean Thailand ignores human rights, but as we know that Thailand is still  a developing country, It faces many problems and challenges in every level of society. If you look at Human rights problem, ours protective labor laws are quite weak, especially with immigrants peoples. There exists Oppressive exploitation of labor at the lowest employment categories. The hard working people can cry out for their rights but the remedial  process very slow and are mostly  ignored by bureaucratic staff.

   

   Additionally, we have legal issues with illegal employees. Thailand was informed by US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, last year that Thailand was elevated from third tier to the second tier country  in regards to human trafficking. Opening borders to receive refugees could stimulate some group to hire illegal employees easier. According to refugee rights  in Thailand, no one can guarantee that refugee people will obtain their rights and were protected as they should or not. Plus they would have risk to be illegal employees also. Aiding form international organization as UNCHR is very important helping.

  

   

    As we have seen in most of the cases in the world, banning and refusing to allow immigrants have encouraged human traffickers to flourish. Hence, the only way forward for Thailand is to open its borders and to regulate and register the refugees. This way, Refugees can be integrated in to the society and over a period of time, repatriated back to Myanmar using diplomatic dialogues. 

                                                                                                            Bandhita,4/11/2017

Internet sources:

https://www.unhcr.or.th/about/thailand (UNHCR, Thailand,3/11/2017)

https://www.humanrightsfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/pdf/Thailand.pdf ("Refugee's rights in Thailand", 3/11/2017)

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2016/jun/30/thailand-us-trafficking-in-persons-report-2016-fury ("Thailand's improved status in US human trafficking report sparks fury", 4/11/2017)