SITUATION OF THE REFUGEES IN THAILAND

Thai policy towards Shan refugees

Regrettably, the Thai government continues to deny refuge for those persons fleeing human rights abuses in Shan State. Shan refugees fleeing to Thailand have been repeatedly pushed back across the border by Thai authorities, and unlike refugees from several other ethnic minority groups in Burma, Shan refugees receive no assistance from international aid groups. (See Appendix 3, map of refugee camps along Thai-Burma border, and Appendix 4, newspaper article describing plight of Shan refugees.)

The result of the Thai policy has meant that until the present, any Shan refugees fleeing to Thailand have been forced to try and survive as illegal migrants. The risks and difficulties this involves have compounded their suffering.

"No refugees"

Up until now, there has been no official Thai acknowledgement of the huge influx of Shan refugees over the last two years. Foreign Embassy staff and UNHCR representatives who have questioned local Thai officials in Chiang Mai province about the large numbers of refugees arriving since April 1996, have been told that only the usual migrant labourers from Shan State have been coming across to work in farms and other worksites.

Given the eyewitness reports from the border crossing points of unusually high numbers of Shans crossing over in the early months of 1996 and 1997, and repeated large scale arrests of refugees that have occurred near the border, it is highly unlikely that the Thai authorities are not aware of the exodus caused by the forced relocation. It can only be assumed that as long as the official Thai policy is to deny asylum for Shan refugees, it is expedient to deny that the problem exists.

Fear of arrest

For most refugees arriving in Thailand, the main fear is that they will be arrested for illegal entry. The punishment for this is a 1-month prison sentence or a fine of about 2,000 baht.

During 1996, there were repeated arrests of refugees arriving in Thailand by Thai police either near the border or on the way to Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

Since the onset of the economic crisis in Thailand in the latter part of 1997, and the resulting Thai government policy to push out illegal migrants, there have been increased crackdowns along routes from the border, and at worksites in towns, and this has greatly increased the climate of fear among refugees trying to survive in Thailand.

Exploitation

Because of their illegal status, all of the refugees are at risk of exploitation by unscrupulous agents and traffickers. Particularly in danger are girls and young women.

In the third week of February of 1998, a woman refugee from Keng Kham, aged 25, who had been working on a farm west of Fang for several months, was approached by a motorcycle-taxi driver at Fang market. He offered her a job for 3,500 baht a month. She agreed to go with him, and he handed her over to another man, who paid him 8,000 baht. She was taken in a car down to Bangkok, and then down to a high-rise building near the sea. She was locked in the ground floor, where there were about 40 other women and girls from Shan State. They were all refugees from areas of forced relocation, such as Lai Kha, Murng Nai, Keng Kham and Keng Tong. The youngest was a girl of 13. The women were locked up all the time, and only let out when male customers took them out at night. Fortunately for the woman from Keng Kham, she was able to escape after a week and return to Fang. Within two days of arriving back in Fang, the motorcyclist and agent from Bangkok came to find her at her former workplace, but luckily she had already moved on.

LIVING CONDITIONS OF REFUGEES IN THAILAND

"In Thailand there are many people from Shan State now working in lychee orchards, in cultivation, in construction sites, and also in shops working dishes...almost every shop, every house has Shan servants now..." (KHRG interview with monk from Lai Kha, Aug 31, 1997)

Shan refugees arriving in 1996 and 1997 have ended up mostly on farms in Chiang Mai or Mae Hong Son provinces, or on construction sites in towns such as Chiang Mai or Bangkok. The main difference between these refugees and the usual migrant labourers from Burma is that the refugees generally consist of whole families including young children and grandparents, whereas migrant labourers tend to be mostly working adults without dependents. This has made it very difficult for the refugees to survive. Even if the adults can earn a (usually irregular) wage on the site, it is extremely low and must be used to support their children or elderly relatives as well as themselves.

Conditions in rural areas

Thai farmers in the border provinces have in recent years increasingly relied on migrant labour, and many Shans have long been employed in farms and orchards along the Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai borders. Thus, when large numbers of Shan refugees fled into Thailand over the last two years, many headed first to stay with friends and relatives in border agricultural communities.

Farm workers tend to stay in huts out in the fields. Wages range from 30 to 100 baht a day, but the work is seasonal and sporadic. Many refugees who tried to survive on farms were later forced to move to cities in the hope that could survive better with construction work.

Refugees interviewed on farms stated that they hardly left their worksite in case they were arrested by police, who would often patrol the roads. They would slip out only to buy supplies from local markets. When they were ill, they were also unwilling to go to Thai hospitals, and preferred to buy medicine to treat themselves.

Conditions on construction sites

Wages on construction sites are about 70-80 baht per day for women and 100-120 baht for men. However, the wage for simply digging ditches or collecting rubbish around a site can be as low as 35 baht. Work is also often only available for as little as 10 days a month.

Workers are usually paid every 15 days, at which time "police protection fees" of 50-100 baht are deducted. Workers also tend to buy food and supplies on credit from the company store on the construction site, so that very little cash is actually received on pay-day.

Large numbers of workers live together in corrugated iron or bamboo shacks at the construction sites. Members of several families may live crowded together in one room, where food is also cooked. Shared makeshift latrines and washing huts are usually located next to the living quarters.

Illness is a major problem for refugees at construction sites. Stomach disorders and skin infections owing to unsanitary living conditions are common, as well as malaria. If the main breadwinner falls ill, the rest of the family has to borrow from other members of the worksite community in order to have enough to eat. Many of the refugees do not dare go to local Thai hospitals, and simply try to treat themselves with over-the-counter medicine.

The effects of the 1997 economic crisis on Shan refugees

Already by mid-1997, the work situation for Shan refugees had become increasingly difficult. The constant influxes of refugees arriving in the border areas meant that there was less agricultural work available, and in the towns, the high numbers of refugees competing for work meant that it was an "employers' market". With a constant source of cheap labour available, employers found it easier to cheat their workers, for example letting workers work for one or more months without pay, then calling the police to come and arrest them.

In the second half of 1997, the economic crisis began to affect construction projects. In Chiang Mai, construction began to slow down on the large housing estates in the outlying areas of the town, where thousands of migrant workers had been working. Many employers stopped paying their workers.

At the end of 1997, in an attempt to solve their economic problems and create jobs for the increasing numbers of Thai unemployed, the Thai government began drawing up plans to repatriate the estimated one million migrant workers inside Thailand, including the approximate 800,000 migrants from Burma. There began to be large-scale crackdowns in work-sites around the country, and pushbacks of migrants to the border.

In Chiang Mai, there have been repeated raids on construction sites since the beginning of 1998. Some groups of illegal migrants have been sent back to the border and allowed to disperse on the Thai side. Some groups have actually been repatriated into the hands of Burmese officials at the border crossing of Nong Ook.

On January 20, 1998, a group of 60 Shans who had been repatriated officially were forced by SPDC troops to go to Murng Ton, and then on to the Salween River at Ta Sarng, where they were made to work by SPDC soldiers from IB no. 65 at a gravel-pit, splitting stones for a construction company.

An impending crisis

In spite of the economic problems in Thailand, and the resulting shortage of jobs and increased police crackdowns on migrants, refugees are continuing to pour in from the areas of relocation inside Shan State. Several thousand have already arrived in January and February of 1998. They state that they were aware of the problems in Thailand, but they had no other choice to survive.

At the same time, the Shan refugees inside Thailand who have been pushed back to the border are unable to return home and are continuing to seek refuge in the border areas.

With the agricultural communities at the northern border already saturated with the tens of thousands of Shan refugees who have fled over the last two years, there is now simply no work available for the new arrivals and the situation has become critical. Urgent measures are required to deal with this impending humanitarian crisis on the Thai-Shan border.