ABSTRACT
After more than two decades of protracted displacement from Burma, and with the prospect for durable solutions a seemingly distant dream for so long, resettlement has started to play an important part in addressing the prolonged limbo of encampment for a significant portion of the registered camp residents. There has been no possibility for a sustainable return of the refugees, given the conditions of chronic human insecurity in their homelands. Local integration in the form of legal status and residency rights also remains off the agenda for the majority of the Burmese in Thailand. The warehousing of the Burmese camp refugee population has several related factors, including: the Royal Thai Government's (RTG) growing wariness of hosting refugee populations for decades. United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is only responsible for those Burmese in Thailand who stake a claim on refugee status. The number of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the eastern border regions within Burma number approximately 500,000.
