PRFDHR Seminar: Constructing Asylum in a Non-Signatory State: Urban Power and Refugee Resilience in Bangkok, Professor Bhanubhatra "Kaan" Jittiang
The lack of legal status is the primary challenge for more than five thousand refugees and asylum seekers seeking refuge in Bangkok. A refugee is not a legal category under Thai laws as Thailand is a non-signatory state of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. Although UNHCR may have screened and granted refugee status, the Thai government has never recognized such legal recognition. Thailand is concerned that giving a refugee status will become a pull factor attracting new waves of the forcibly displaced.