Thai treatment to refugees is inadequate: Human Right Watch says

Despite of long experience, Thai treatment to refugees from Myanmar and elsewhere is still inadequate and below standard, Human Right Watch said in a report Thursday.

The 143-page report, "Ad Hoc and Inadequate: Thailand’s Treatment of Refugees and Asylum Seekers," indicated that Thai refugee policies are not grounded in law and cause refugees of all nationalities to be exploited and unnecessarily detained and deported.

The report focuses on the plight of Myanmar refugees, the largest current refugee group in Thailand. It examines treatment and conditions of refugees both inside the camps on the border and outside the camps, who are not officially recognized as refugees.

"Thailand presents refugees with the unfair choice of stagnating for years in remote refugee camps or living and working outside the camps without protection from arrest and deportation," said Bill Frelick, Refugee Program director at Human Rights Watch and co-author of the report.