Refugees have been accepted for resettlement in the US and Australia but remain stuck in the border town of Mae Sot – at risk of arrest or deportation – because the Thai government is failing to issue exit permits.
By FRONTIER
Daw Khin Nyein Thit*, a prominent political activist, waits anxiously with her family in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, eager to start their new lives in the United States.
They received approval to resettle there as a refugee in March last year, but nearly 16 months later, Thailand still hasn’t given them permission to leave.
“We’ve been waiting for more than a year and three months to be allowed to travel to a third country. I’ve heard that this is because of a restriction by the Thai government, but we don’t know why,” she said.
Khin Nyein Thit was jailed in 1995 for participating in a peaceful demonstration, spending seven years in prison, and also helped organise protests during the Saffron Revolution in 2007. After the military overthrew the elected National League for Democracy government in February 2021, she immediately went into hiding, and fled to Thailand with her family in September that year.
She’s one of over a thousand refugees who have been approved for resettlement in either the US or Australia, but haven’t gotten permission to leave, possibly because Thailand fears encouraging a fresh influx of refugees. With exit permits seemingly stalled indefinitely, sources say resettlement approvals have also dried up.
U Aye Chan*, a former senior civil servant who joined a mass strike to protest the coup, applied for resettlement with the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, in September 2021, but never heard back from the embassies of Western countries that work with the agency in the resettlement programme.
He felt compelled to leave Myanmar when he was dismissed from his job as a deputy director at the environment ministry under the accusation of encouraging others to join the Civil Disobedience Movement.
“There are some Myanmar people who manage to get to third countries from here, but most are still waiting like us,” Aye Chan told Frontier. “We only applied to settle in a third country as a last resort, because we’re unable to return to our homeland.”
Soldier rumours
In March last year, The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Australia granted asylum to two soldiers who had defected from the military in protest against the coup and violence against civilians.
This set off a rumour frenzy, creating a seemingly false impression among military defectors that Australia had a broad policy to accept them.
Ko Chit Htun*, a former captain and army doctor, deserted from the military and arrived in Mae Sot in May last year. Like many others, he had heard the rumours, and hoped he could get a job in Australia and send back money to support the resistance.
He applied two months later to the UNHCR for refugee status and also to the US and Australian embassies for resettlement.
“So far I just got a call from UNHCR asking me to confirm whether I’m currently living here or not. The two embassies still haven’t contacted me,” he told Frontier.
He said more than 1,000 ex-military personnel have applied to the US and Australian embassies for resettlement, but only knows of three infantry soldiers who have actually reached Australia.
Ma Ma Thu*, an ex-sergeant and military nurse, said she was approved for resettlement in Australia, but hasn’t been granted her exit permit yet.
She left her post after four and a half years of service and fled to Thailand in December 2021 with her husband and young child. She said the dysfunction of the refugee system is pushing some to leave for other parts of Thailand, or return to dangerous places in Myanmar.
“At this point, some of the military deserters no longer want to wait for UNHCR’s reply, so they went to Bangkok for work. Others went to ethnic armed group areas,” she said.
Thousands in limbo
In January this year, the UN estimated that 1.1 million people had been displaced from their homes by the civil war sparked by the coup, with over 70,000 fleeing the country. One month later, the Thai government said around 22,400 people had crossed the border from Myanmar during that period, although domestic groups put the number significantly higher.
Thailand has not ratified the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, and that implies that it is not under any legal obligation to grant asylum to refugees or to provide them with documents.
Ko Phoe Thingyan, secretary of the Overseas Irrawaddy Association, estimates over 50,000 people have fled from Myanmar to Mae Sot and the surrounding area for fear of political persecution.
OIA is a Mae Sot-based NGO that provides food, clothing, safe houses and support for Myanmar “urban refugees” living in Mae Sot and nearby towns. Some 90,000, mostly ethnic Karen refugees also live along the Thai-Myanmar border in rural camps established in the 1980s.
Phoe Thingyan said that about 80 percent of the urban refugees have contacted UNHCR and more than half of those have applied for resettlement in third countries. When they email UNHCR, they get an automated reply.
“Given the very high volume of inquiries UNHCR is receiving, please expect a delay of several weeks in getting a further response,” it says. “During this period, please avoid contacting UNHCR to seek an update in relation to your case as this will only cause further delays.”
OIA and the New Myanmar Foundation, another NGO based in Mae Sot, say the US and Australia are the main countries accepting Myanmar “urban refugees” in Thailand for resettlement.
“When I came out of Myanmar in 1990, refugees were widely offered resettlement by Australia, New Zealand, US, Canada and Norway. These days only the US and Australia are broadly accepting them,” said Dr Sann Aung, NMF’s executive director.
No stranger to the refugee process, Sann Aung won a seat in the 1990 general election as an independent candidate, which the NLD won in a landslide, but the then-junta refused to recognise the results. He became a minister in the parallel National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, and was based in Manerplaw, the Karen National Union’s former headquarters in Kayin State, before settling in Australia as a refugee.
After the coup, he returned to help the next generation of those in need.
Refugees and NGOs said most of those who have received approval letters from the US and Australian embassies applied before April last year, and the only ones to get approval since then were the most prominent figures.
“VIPs and celebrities get to third countries faster because they have contacts there,” said Sann Aung. “Processing for ordinary people and political activists is slow. It depends on your connections.”
OIA and NMF claimed the US has approved about 1,300 people for resettlement while Australia has accepted some 300. But refugees who have been accepted for resettlement interviewed by Frontier estimate that only about 180 Myanmar refugees had actually reached the US by the end of June while nearly 200 have arrived in Australia.
Sann Aung said he believes Thailand is withholding exit permits because it fears this would encourage more refugees to come.
An automated reply from the US embassy email in Yangon notes that asylum is only available to “people who are already outside of their home country”.
“The Thai government thinks that if 1,000 Myanmar urban refugees get resettled, 10,000 more will come,” said Sann Aung. “If 10,000 people are allowed to leave, another 100,000 people will come. The Thai government is worried that Myanmar refugees will be a burden for them.”
Precarious position
But this heel dragging is leaving some vulnerable people in a precarious position.
In June, Frontier interviewed in-person 31 Myanmar urban refugees in Mae Sot trying to resettle in a third country. Twelve of them had received approval letters from embassies, but no exit permits from Thailand.
The refugees included politicians, activists, CDM workers and ex-military personnel, businesspeople, philanthropists, journalists and fund raisers for the revolution. Almost all said they feared for their safety back in Myanmar because of the threat of torture or death by the military regime.
“The main thing is security,” said a former NLD MP who was elected to parliament in Mandalay Region in 2015. He has received approval to resettle in the US but is still waiting for Thailand to let him leave.
“If I am caught and sent back to my country, they will kill me immediately. That’s why I want to live in a democratic country.”
In April, three members of an anti-regime armed group were arrested in Thailand and handed over to the military-affiliated Kayin State Border Guard Force. One was then killed while trying to escape.
Seeking asylum is also an economic drag. Some refugees told Frontier that they were overwhelmed and confused by the process, so they paid agents to help them submit documents to UNHCR and Western embassies. Each application can cost up to 2,000 baht (US$60), and some also used brokers to find houses or apartments.
Others have been swindled by scammers posing as agents.
“Because people are desperate for a shortcut to get resettled in a third country, there are fake agents who take advantage,” said Phoe Thingyan.
Many of those living in Mae Sot are undocumented, and police also take a toll in the form of bribes and fines.
“There are always security concerns for those who escape from Myanmar to Thailand. They are detained by Thai police from time to time,” said U Nyein Chan*, who has received approval to resettle in the US.
He was arrested soon after the coup for organising protests in Thanintharyi Region’s Myeik town, and freed in an amnesty in October that year. Upon his release, Nyein Chan immediately fled to Thailand with his family, and soon after, the military seized his home.
“UNHCR should provide security protection to Myanmar urban refugees who contact the agency,” he said.
“Once they get here, most Myanmar refugees head to the UN,” said Phoe Thingyan. “But actually, UNHCR doesn’t do much. If a Myanmar refugee gets arrested, it is the CSO and NGO teams here who respond.”
UNHCR did not respond to a request for comment.
The editor of a prominent exile media outlet said he’s been detained in Thailand three or four times. While he initially hoped to resettle in a third country, he’s been waiting for so long he’s given up hope, and now just wants documents to live in Thailand more securely.
“As long as we can still provide news for the people, we will continue to do so from here. If we can get documents, that would help us from being arrested here, and we can keep operating. We have no other option,” he said.
* denotes a pseudonym for safety reasons