ROHINGYA CHILDREN IN THAILAND Rafique* is 16 years old. He left Myanmar in November 2019, and like many refugees, undertook a dangerous overland journey through Myanmar and Thailand before reaching his final destination of Malaysia. He was arrested while travelling through Thailand, released only after a human trafficker intervened. I left Rakhine State in September 2019. I took a boat for three days, and then we had to walk through the jungle for 56 days… After, we were taken by car to stay in the mountains, then we were taken to Yangon. I stayed there for 13 days, then we were taken overland to Mawlamyine. It took a day – that same night, we began travelling to Thailand. Accurate estimates of the number of Rohingya in Thailand are difficult to obtain, in large part because many of those who arrive in the country do so en route to Malaysia or other destination countries. Current estimates put the number of Rohingya in Thailand at between 3,000 and 15,000. However conditions in Thailand means that undocumented Rohingya in the country are discouraged from identifying themselves openly, and often refer to themselves as Myanmar Muslims.126 LEGAL STATUS Rohingya in Thailand generally fall into one of three categories: officially recognised victims of human trafficking, most of whom live in government shelters; documented migrant workers, most of whom have lived in Thailand for over a decade; and undocumented Rohingya – both new and less recent arrivals – who live mainly in urban areas. While the situation in Myanmar means that most (if not all) Rohingya in Thailand would qualify as refugees, Thailand’s lack of a legal framework for refugees, coupled with political sensitivities around the Rohingya (the result of Thailand’s close relationship with and proximity to Myanmar) mean that they are not considered among the unofficial refugee population in the country. This has several negative impacts, including making it difficult for NGOs in Thailand working specifically on refugee rights to offer support and assistance.127 The next morning, we arrived in Thailand and began the journey to Malaysia. After one hour, we were arrested by police. We were held in police custody for a day – the agent [human trafficker] helped release us. Then we took a car train, and another car to the Malaysian border. Once in Malaysia, we took a bus to Kuala Lumpur. The journey was very risky. One of us – I think she was 18 years old – died on the way. While I was in the jungle, I could not get proper food – I could only eat leaves and bamboo shoots. It was so terrible… I thought I would die. 3 COUNTRY BY COUNTRY SNAPSHOT 3.4 THAILAND While the Thai authorities are reluctant to recognise Rohingya as refugees, they do recognize the group as being in need of protection. One way this has been achieved has been through the 2015 Anti-Human Trafficking Act, which empowers authorities to determine whether an individual is a victim of human trafficking. Such a designation means that instead of being viewed as ‘illegal’ migrants and at risk of detention in immigration detention centres, Rohingya are instead taken to government shelters where they are registered, afforded witness protection if they are involved in legal cases against human traffickers, and kept until they can be resettled a third country. While being identified as a victim of human trafficking offers some form of protection, in practice, the threshold for such a determination can be high, and often requires evidence – such as discovery in a jungle camp or other detention site, or identification and/or capture of those responsible – which can be difficult to obtain.128 Those who are not identified as victims of human trafficking are labelled ‘illegal’ migrants and sent to immigration detention centres. There are also reports that in recent years, Thai authorities have become more reluctant to recognize Rohingya as Rohingya or as victims of human trafficking, instead claiming that they are ‘Myanmar Muslims’, or else that they crossed into Thailand 21