Muslim

The human rights situation in Karen State has driven tens of thousands from their homes and into the forests. In addition to the estimated 110,000 displaced persons in Karen State, a further 140,000 have crossed into neighbouring Thailand as refugees where they languish in seven different camps along the Thai-Burma border. Thailand, which is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, does not recognise these people as refugees, but rather as displaced persons, and inasmuch denies them some of the rights assured to them under the Convention. There have been repeated reports of refugees being denied entry into Thailand where their passage has been blocked by armed soldiers of the Royal Thai Army and the Border Patrol Police. In early 2006 over 40 refugees, who after a week-long trek, had crossed the border and were making their way on foot to one of the camps, were apprehended by Thai authorities and summarily deported back to Burma for ‘illegal entry’. For the past several years the refugee camps along the Thai-Burma border have been ‘closed’, with the Thais not willing to accept any more arrivals, despite the circumstances that they are fleeing from.