Thailand’s recent decision to withdraw its reservation to a key provision in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child appears to support its status as a “champion country” of the Global Compact for Migration. However, many rights observers say Thailand continues to detain children—as well as other at-risk migrants and refugees—in often paltry, abusive conditions.
Praise and Confusion over Withdrawal of Reservation
Thailand’s decision in late August to withdraw its reservation to a key provision in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) has received widespread praise, including from the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, which said in a press release that it was a “significant, positive step towards aligning the country’s laws and policies with international human rights and refugee law standards to protect the rights of all children on the move no matter who they are or where they are from.” The reservation concerned Article 22 of the CRC, which guarantees refugee and asylum-seeking children the right to protection, humanitarian assistance, and equal access to social assistance.
However, some observers have expressed concern that the withdrawal does not go far enough and that the manner in which it was announced caused significant public confusion. Reportedly, the government’s decision led to the misconception that all foreign children in Thailand would automatically be granted Thai citizenship. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was forced to publicly clarify that the withdrawal does not grant citizenship, and that the CRC does not mention nationality, but instead ensures that refugee children receive adequate protection and humanitarian assistance. The Thai Minister of Social Development and Human Security said, “There has been a misunderstanding that Thailand must grant citizenship to these children under Article 22, which is completely false.”
Ongoing Abuses of Migrant Children and Asylum Seekers
Importantly, concerns persist that undocumented and asylum seeking children are still subject to detention in Thailand; according to Global Detention Project (GDP) data, Thailand has one of the largest immigration detention systems in Asia. Despite hosting one of the largest refugee populations in Southeast Asia—with approximately 5,600 registered refugees and asylum seekers in Bangkok alone—Thai legislation does not provide protection to refugees. Thailand is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and lacks an established asylum procedure, leaving refugees and asylum seekers with limited options for protection and increasing their vulnerability to detention and other forms of abuse.
According to an internal legal assessment shared with the GDP by one of its partners in Thailand, in 2022 the Thai government sided with police officials in allowing it to sidestep courts when detaining foreign children. The document reported several cases in which Thai officials arrested child refugees under the charge of “being foreign nationals who entered and resided in the Kingdom without permission,” did not fine them or bring them to court, and placed them instead in immigration detention centres.
Thailand also continues to detain asylum seekers fleeing persecution in China, some of whom have died after languishing for more than a decade in terrible conditions without adequate medical assistance. As previously reported by the Global Detention Project, the country has a troubling history of detaining migrants for extensive periods in degrading, overcrowded, and abusive conditions, resulting in cases of deaths in detention. Last year, for the second time a Uyghur man died in a detention centre in Bangkok, highlighting the terrible plight of Uyghurs in Thailand as well as undermining Thailand’s claims to being an exemplary supporter of the Compact for Migration.
Anti-Torture Measures and ATDs
Nevertheless, Thailand has adopted other measures that could, if properly implemented, potentially improve protections for children and other vulnerable non-citizens. In 2019, the Thai Government signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the Determination of Measures and Approaches Alternative to Detention of Children in Immigration Detention Centres, which establishes that children should be placed in detention as a measure of last resort and for the briefest possible period.
In a 2023 annual assessment of Thailand’s achievements in implementing the Compact for Migration, the Network on Migration reported that 1,000 “vulnerable migrants in detention (were) provided with humanitarian assistance” and that “446 children and 32 caregivers (were) supported with ATD.” The report makes no assessment of whether the use of ATDs has led to a decrease in the number of children placed in immigration detention, noting instead that overall there was an “increasing number of migrants in detention in 2023.” According to the Network, the “IOM has coordinated with UNHCR … to ensure that humanitarian assistance and protection services are provided to these vulnerable populations. UNHCR has been providing family tracing and contact services, cash for assistance for populations in detention, and Shelters and Welfare Protection Centres for victims of trafficking. IOM has been complementing this assistance with Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Non food items (NFI), and Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) and ad-hoc education sessions.”
Thailand has also promoted important regional cooperation initiatives, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) adoption of a Declaration on the Rights of the Children in the Context of Migration and a Regional Plan of Action on Implementing the ASEAN Declaration on the Rights of Children in the Context of Migration, which according to UNICEF are “solid examples of promoting and supporting change within the region, moving towards alternatives to child immigration detention, recognizing the right to birth registration for all children, and the need to allocate sufficient resources, including appropriately trained staff, to support service provision.”
More recently, in 2023, the government adopted the Act on Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance, which it heralded as a step toward protecting a key vulnerable group. However, Amnesty International pointed out that a deferment on its full enforcement raised reasons for concerns and suggested that “The entry into force of the Act must be followed by domestic measures to combat torture, ill-treatment and enforced disappearances. These include ending the culture of impunity and ensuring justice, truth and reparation for victims of these crimes.”
“A History of Repression”
While Thailand has a mixed record on protections for at-risk and vulnerable non-citizens, many human rights groups say that any apparently positive steps it may have made pale in comparison to its incredibly abusive treatment of refugees who have fled violence and repression in neighbouring countries in recent years.
In a May 2024 report titled “We Thought We Were Safe”: Repression and Forced Return of Refugees in Thailand, Human Rights Watch said, “Once a safe haven for exiles from neighbouring countries and beyond, Thailand over the last 10 years has become an increasingly unsafe place for those fleeing persecution in their home countries. A growing number of exiled dissidents and activists have been subject to intimidation and harassment, surveillance, and physical violence that have happened across the border—often with the knowledge and connivance of Thai authorities.”
