PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Bangkok, 22 June, 2012 On World Refugee Day, 20 June 2012, the Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation (TCR) held a public forum Thai Voice for Refugees 2012 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT). This years theme was Thai Voice for Refugees 2012. TCR as the first and only Thai registered organization working on protecting and promoting rights of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons reported on Thai civil societys efforts and achievements: providing for the first time formal education to refugee and stateless children on the ThaiBurma border, establishing the Refugee Freedom Fund to bail out refugees and stateless persons from immigration detention, launching a pilot case to resolve statelessness problem, advocating for the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in Thailand, and capacity building in cooperation with universities based in Thailand. Despite the fact that the awareness among Thai society on the issue of refugees is fairly limited, there have been some positive signs of increasing understanding on this issue from various stakeholders including the Thai Government agencies and the Thai public. Prof. Thongtong Chantarangsu, Permanent Secretary from the Prime Ministers Office and Chairman of TCR commented, Thailand is a country which has a long history of helping friends from neighboring countries. I would like to support and encourage TCR as a Thai civil society organization to continue the great work and achieve its goals in the years to come. Adding to the Thai Voice for Refugees, Thai students and a teacher from a school located in the Thailand-Burma border and university based in Bangkok spoke about their experience in studying together with refugee and stateless children and campaigning for the rights of refugees. Prakan Seama, a student from Ban Rom Klao 4 school located in Pop Phra district said, at first, I did not like the idea of studying with non-Thai students, but after studying

and doing activities with them at the school, I felt closer and closer to them. My friends represented us at a national English speaking competition and they won the silver medal. I was very proud of them. In contrary to what people believe, we are able to study and live together. Manoch Rungma, the Director of Ban Rom Klao 4 school added that we are very happy to partner with TCRs formal education programme. It was very encouraging to see refugee and stateless children study together with Thai students. In the first year we only had about 30 children but now we have over 160 children. In addition, Thai academicians and government officials such as Dr. Niran Pitakwatchara from the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand, Mr. Boonsit Sukburanapongsa from the National Law Reform Commission of Thailand and Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn from Chulalongkorn University, Thailand participated in the panel discussion. Dr. Niran Pitakwatchara discussed human rights violations refugees suffer in Thailand in regards to immigration detention, the lack of legal protection mechanisms, and cooperation with the National Human Rights Commission of Thailand regarding the Amendment of the Immigration Act. Mr. Boonsit Sukburanapongsa talked about the cooperation between the National Law Reform Commission and the Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation in proposing the very first Refugee Act in Thailand. The panelists emphasized the importance of national civil societys efforts to protect and promote the rights of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in order to achieve sustainable and long-term solutions to the problems. Prof. Vitit Muntarbhorn commented that World Refugee Day is a time to reflect and plead for the realization of human rights of the 45 million forced migrants around the world. Thailand has hosted hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, Cambodians, Burmese and more and we are proud of this fact and have offered temporary refuge over the years. We have seen various improvements in protection of refugees, led by Thai civil society. He further added, However, we need to emphasize even more the call for basic rights as part of a global respect for human rights. About TCR: TCR was founded in August 2010 by Veerawit Tianchainan and is the first and only registered Thai organizations with the mission to promote and protect human rights of refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in Thailand and in the ASEAN region.

For more information: Veerawit Tianchainan Founder and Executive Director, Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR) Tel: 0870960330 E-Mail: vtianchainan@thaiforrefugees.org Web: www.thaiforrefugees.org