Human trafficking from Burma to Thailand has become an increasingly well-documented consequence of Burmese oppression of the Rohingya.337 Facing certain danger and persecution in Burma, many Rohingya find no other choice of escape than to risk exploitation at the hands of human smuggling rings, especially because of their lack of citizenship or identification documents.338 The large presence of human trafficking from Burma to Thailand is yet another reason for Thailand to embrace the UNHCR refugee status determination process more quickly.
inadequacy of their own laws, especially when international organizations have the means to help.
337 Alan Morison & Chutima Sidasathian, Second Rohingya Trafficking Camp Raided, Rights Group Calls for UN Intervention, PHUKET WAN (Jan. 11, 2013), http://phuketwan.com/tourism/second-rohingya-camp-raided-rights-group-calls-intervention-17407 (“Hundreds more captive Rohingya were freed from traffickers in a fresh raid by authorities early today as an international rights organisation called on the Thai government to permit UN access to the rescued people. Human Rights Watch spokesperson Phil Robertson said: ‘[w]e are concerned that Thailand will quickly move to deport these groups without consideration for their rights.’”). 338 LAWYER’S COUNCIL OF THAI.: THAI ACTION COMM. FOR DEMOCRACY IN BURMA, SUB-COMM. ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF STATELESS PERSONS, DISPLACED PERSONS AND MIGRANT WORKERS, ROHINGYAS: STATELESS AND FORGOTTEN PEOPLE FACT-FINDING REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS FROM THE ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON THE INHUMANE PUSH-BACK OF THE ROHINGYA BOAT PEOPLE 16–17 (2009) [hereinafter LAWYER’S COUNCIL], available at http://www.eurac.edu/en/research/institutes/imr/Documents/TACDBFFMRoundtableSeminarFINALREPORTason13MARCH2009.p df.
340 The Refugee Status Determination Unit, U.N. HIGH COMM’R FOR REFUGEES, http://www.unhcr.org/pages/4a16b1d06.html (last updated July 2008).
341 LAWYER’S COUNCIL, supra note 338, at 23.
343 Saiyasombut, supra note 301 (asserting that Tier 2 on the Human Rights Watch List is the second-worst rating on the scale, and Thailand has remained at that level for three years because it has failed to uphold “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”); 2014 TIP REPORT, supra note 103, at 372.