Thailand

Thailand hosts 91,401 refugees from Myanmar in the nine temporary shelters run by The Royal Thai Government on the Thai/Myanmar border, approximately 5,000 urban refugees and asylum-seekers from over 40 countries, and some 480,000 stateless persons. The group of refugees residing in the nine camps are of mainly Karen, Karenni and Burmese ethnicity, some of whom have lived in Thailand since the mid-1980s after fleeing conflict between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military.

UNHCR’s interventions focus primarily on protection and solutions, with material assistance provided by NGOs. For urban refugees and asylum-seekers, UNHCR continues to undertake refugee status determination, provision of emergency/life-saving health care, legal and social counselling, access to education and psycho-social support. UNHCR works with an NGO partner supporting the Thai authorities to provide legal support to stateless persons in applying for nationality and prevent statelessness in Chiang Rai Province.

The Thailand Multi-Country Office is based in Bangkok. It is responsible for operations in Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam.