It is estimated that the overall number of Burmese migrants in Thailand is somewhere in between 800,000 and one million.
Cross-border migration into Thailand has steadily increased in recent years. Since the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of Thais
have gone to work abroad. Refugees from Burma, Laos and Cambodia have since filled this labour shortage in Thailand.
However, many of them are undocumented, illegal workers and thus constitute the most vulnerable section of the work force.

In the face of continuing grave violations of human rights
by the Burmese government against its own civilians, it is
imperative that the international community start to
respond to Burma in terms of the Responsibility to Protect
(R2P) principle...

Since Myanmar opened up under the semi-civilian government in 2011, the diaspora have been encouraged to return.

As persecution on the basis of political activity or ethnicity is often the reason they left, many are reluctant to return permanently to what is an unclear political situation. As a result, brief stays are common. After so many years away from home, family and friends, it is difficult to image the experience of returning.

Burmese paintings find their home in a Chiang Mai gallery...

"It’s a sad reflection on the Rangoon regime’s restrictive policies on artistic expression that one of Southeast Asia’s finest collections of contemporary Burmese art isn’t to be found in Burma, but in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand.

Burma/Myanmar has suffered
from two decades of mine
warfare by both the State Peace
and Development Council and
ethnic-based insurgents. There
are no humanitarian demining
programmes within the country.
It is no surprise that those states
in Burma/Myanmar with the most
mine pollution are the highest
IDP- and refugee-producing
states. Antipersonnel mines
planted by both government
forces and ethnic armed groups
injure and kill not only enemy
combatants but also their own

The population of Yangon has experienced coercive
resettlement on a truly massive scale under military rule..."With its ‘huts to
apartments’ scheme, the SPDC claims
to have placed many squatters in
new multi-storey housing on the site
of or near their former dwellings.
However, forced relocation in Yangon,
Mandalay and other cities in central
Burma continues today; victims of
fires, for example, are not allowed
to rebuild their old neighbourhoods
and residential areas are cleared to

One major report, several shorter articles.

" The repressive government of Burma has caused hundreds of thousands of people, mainly members of minority ethnic groups, to flee to Thailand, Bangladesh and other countries in search of safety.

Urban and rural displacement in Myanmar

Most Burmese people fleeing their homes do so for a combination of reasons. The root causes for leaving, however,
determine which ‘category’ they belong to: ‘internally displaced persons’ (IDPs) or ‘economic migrants’. There is
some discussion as to whether people leaving their homes due to exhaustion of livelihoods options are IDPs
according to the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement1 – or not. Ashley South and Andrew Bosson present
their views below...

This Interview with Saw A--- describes an arbitrary arrest that occurred in Htantabin Township, Toungoo District, in January 2016. Saw A--- describes how he was arrested and sued because of a demonstration, which he and other people held against Kaung Myanmar Aung Company on January 12th 2016 after the company confiscated villagers’ lands. Saw A--- faces criminal charges for using a loudspeaker, as it broke the law against the disturbance of public peace. Chief of Police, Aye Zaw from No. 2 Police Station, Toungoo District, submitted the charge against him as a complainant.

Situation to end 2001