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There are currently more than 120,000 refugees living in Thailand. Refugees from Burma are also in refugee camps along the
Bangladeshi and Indian borders as well as working and living in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Malaysia. The line between
refugee and migrant is a thin one and there are also an estimated 1 million migrant workers living in Thailand who have fled from
their homes for many of the same reasons that official refugees have. (The topic of migrant workers from Burma is covered in
the next chapter) The majority of refugees living in Thailand are from the Karen, Karenni, Shan and Mon ethnic groups with
migrant workers coming from all ethnic groups and all areas of Burma. The majority of Burmese refugees in Bangladesh are
Rohingya Muslims who face religious and ethnic persecution in their native Arakan State in western Burma. Many Rohingya
refugees have been repatriated since 250,000 of them fled to the Cox?s Bazaar District of Bangladesh in 1992 and there are
currently 22,000 refugees remaining in the camps. Thousands of Rohingya refugees have also migrated or been trafficked to
India and Pakistan where there are a number of Rohingya refugee women and girls who have been sold into prostitution.
Refugees flee Burma for a number of reasons, including large scale human rights abuses such as forced relocations, rape, forced
labor, torture, the confiscation of land and property, arbitrary arrest and lack of personal security...
