Myanmar, also known as Burma, with a total population of 54.6 million,¹ is part of the Lower Mekong Region (LMR) and is situated in Southeast Asia, bordering India, Bangladesh, China, Laos and Thailand. There are more than 135 ethnic groups,²with the majority of ethnic people living in seven states that are largely divided based upon ethnicity. About 90 percent of people in Myanmar practice Buddhism. The Bamar people (officially known as ‘Burmese’, but referred to locally as ‘Bamar’) make up close to 70% of the population with the majority of them being Buddhist.³

Myanmar has undergone one of the longest ongoing civil wars in the world, tracing its origin back to its independence from the British in 1948. This conflict is between several ethnic armed groups, seeking self-determination, and Myanmar’s armed forces⁴. The resultant situation in the country is over seven decades of ethnic armed conflict, persecution, and severe human rights abuses, leading to a significant number of refugees fleeing to neighbouring countries such as Thailand, India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia. However, some also look for opportunities further afield, including seeking resettlement in countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, and parts of Europe.

Ongoing ethnic armed conflict, and persecution have resulted in hundreds of thousands of internal and external displaced people, with the 2017 Rohingya crisis a notable example. The legal and political rights of the Rohingya people have long been an underlying issue during the years of conflict, and this came to the fore with an increase in the conflict in Rakhine State at the end of 2016. This escalation resulted in a humanitarian crisis with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people fleeing the region and seeking refuge in neighbouring countries, such as Bangladesh.

The military takeover on 1 February 2021 resulted in significant further displacement within and from the country. Ethnic groups, such as the Karen, Kachin, and Shan, have also fled ongoing conflicts and human rights abuses, seeking refuge in neighbouring countries like Thailand, India, and Malaysia. Currently there are about 1.35 million refugees from Myanmar located around the world, equal to 2% of the total population.⁵

Who are “Myanmar refugees”?

According to the UN Refugee Agency, “Refugees are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.”⁶ Whilst an asylum seeker is someone who is seeking international protection but who hasn’t yet been legally recognised as a refugee and is either waiting on a decision on their claim for asylum or intends to do so.⁷

Both of these definitions differ to that of “migrant”, a term without International legal definition. A migrant is considered to be someone who has voluntarily left their home country for another in order to start a new life, but is free to return home without restriction or implication of persecution.

The people of Myanmar who have left their own country and sought safety in another due to- ongoing conflicts between the Myanmar military and ethnic armed groups, disasters, rights abuses and most commonly political repression, can therefore be considered as fitting the definition of refugee. 

Refugees from Myanmar find themselves unable to seek asylum in neighbouring countries, due to the lack of protection under the domestic laws of these countries, and also, due to the lack of recognition by these countries of key conventions and protocols (see table). As a result of this, groups like the Rohingya people have mostly remained stateless and, due to this, comprise the largest group of stateless people worldwide.⁸

In Mekong region

Thailand is home to the largest population of refugees in the Mekong region. Historically Thailand has been host to a number of migrational waves, from neighbouring countries such as Laos and Vietnam, due to conflicts in the region in the 1970s⁹. In 1987, the political crisis and war against ethnic armed groups forced people from Myanmar to flee to Thailand¹⁰. Over the last 30 years, Thailand has hosted about 90,000 Myanmar refugees in temporary camps and has become the main destination of refugee flows in the Mekong region.

The Indochina Refugee Crisis (1975-1997) sparked an influx into the Mekong region when millions of people fled from the former French colonies of Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos) to other neighbouring countries. There are little appropriate legal and institutional frameworks to protect refugees across the Mekong region, with Cambodia being the exception. Cambodia is the only country in the Lower Mekong to have acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol¹¹.

Thailand

Thailand has hosted Myanmar refugees for more than 30 years, resulting from several waves. At the end of 2022, 90,000 Myanmar refugees were housed in nine “temporary settlements”¹² run by the Thai government near the Myanmar border¹³. While Thailand does not legally recognise the rights of refugees, temporary refugee settlements are permitted by the Royal Thai Government (RTG) and supported by The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), international agencies, and NGOs. Since February 2021, about 48,401 Myanmar refugees have sought protection in Thailand¹⁴, mainly from Karen, Karenni and Burmese ethnicity, most who fled from the conflict between ethnic armed groups and the Myanmar military.

The majority of the refugees located in the 9 refugee camps in Thailand originally came from the Bago, Yangon, Ayeyarwady and Tanintharyi region, Kayah, Kayin, and Mon States. Refugees from Kayin State are the most populous in Thai temporary camps¹⁵.

Cambodia

Cambodia is one of the only countries in Southeast Asia and the Mekong region to sign the 1951 Refugee Convention. According to UNHCR data, Cambodia has hosted about 345 asylum seekers from Myanmar since 2006, including the Rohingya people, who have fled from religious and political persecution in Myanmar. 

Laos

The Lao People’s Democratic Republic is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention, and there is no framework for identifying international protection needs or refugee protection. In 1970, Laos received 700 refugees from Myanmar¹⁶. Since there is no recent up-to-date available data it is challenging to be certain how many Myanmar refugees have sought refuge there.

In the wider Asia region

Bangladesh

Bangladesh is home to the largest refugee camp solely made up of refugees from Myanmar. The majority of the refugees from Myanmar are from the Rohingya ethnic group, who fled from Myanmar’s Rakhine State, to reach safety in 2017 due to ethnic and religious persecution. According to the latest UN Refugee Agency report, more than 981,000 people¹⁷have sought asylum in Bangladesh, the majority living in the Kutupalong camp, in the region of Cox’s Bazar, also home to the world’s largest refugee camp¹⁸. 

Since 2017, the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has hosted 33 congested camps in Cox’s Bazar District until 2021 when some 30,000 refugees relocated to Bhasan Char, an island in Noakhali district¹⁹. The following Chart shows the top ten camp population, gender and total household. 

Out of all of the camps, Camp 15, which is located in Cox’s Bazar District, hosts the largest refugee population while Camp 13 and 1E recorded the second and third highest populations, respectively. About 67% of the Rohingya located in Bangladesh originally came from Maungdaw township, while 26% came from Buthidaung, 6% from Rathedaung and 1% from other places²⁰. 

Malaysia

As of April 2024, Malaysia is the second largest host of Myanmar refugees. The number of Myanmar refugees registered with UNHCR reached 189,340 persons at the end of May 2024²¹. Again, the majority of these refugees are made up of Rohingyan’s who fled from Rakhine State after the 2017 crisis. A large number of Rohingya left Myanmar for Malaysia because of ethnic and religious persecution, heavy restrictions on travelling, and lack of employment opportunities in Sittwe, Pauktaw, and Kyaukphyu townships²².  Malaysia has no legal status for refugees²³ and does not provide refuge in the form of refugee camps²⁴. Most of the refugees live in cities and towns across the peninsula, with sizable populations in Klang Valley, Johor, and Penang.

India

In 2022, UNHCR India had registered over 46,000 refugees, mostly from Myanmar and Afghanistan²⁵. Following the February 2021 military coup, many stateless people, including Rohingya and other ethnic groups from the Chin and Sagaing states sought safety and shelter in northeastern India²⁶. The Rohingya population recently arriving from Bangladesh camps as well as those fleeing persecution in Myanmar could be found in camps and informal settlements in Delhi, Hyderabad, Jammu, Noida, and Nuh cities. In 2024, India hosted over 99,403 refugees²⁷ from Myanmar, with 54,100 refugees having arrived since February 2021²⁸. The majority shelter in the Northeast, mostly in the states of Mizoram and  Manipur.

Indonesia

Although Indonesia is not considered a destination country by the UNHCR, about 900 Rohingya refugees²⁹ have fled to Indonesia. In March 2022, a group of 114 Rohingya arrived in the Aceh region after spending 25 days at sea. Most of these are currently located in three different locations in Aceh, namely, Lhokseumawe, Pidie and Aceh Besar (Ladong)³⁰. The Rohingya who unexpectedly reached Aceh, are ​​currently being hosted in a former Immigration Office in Lhokseumawe. The Indonesian government also has not signed the 1951 Refugees Convention or its 1967 protocol. The humanitarian partners, UNHCR, IOM and others, are catering to the essential needs of these refugees and asylum seekers. According to UNHCR data in April 2024, there are about 3,200, equal to 2.5 percent of the overall number of Myanmar refugees, resident in Indonesia³¹. Among them, the Rohingya population is the largest.

Myanmar Refugees resettlement elsewhere in the world

The majority of Myanmar refugees relocate to temporary camps in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and India. Some of the refugees then seek to leave their host countries to settle in third countries via a UNHCR resettlement programme. According to the UNHCR, “Resettlement is the selection and transfer of refugees from a country in which they have sought protection to a third country that has permitted them to stay based on long-term or permanent residence status”³². The resettlement program grew out of the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol, and the establishment of the UNHCR, who were given a mandate to seek durable and long term solutions to the plights of international refugees.

These durable solutions include:

• Voluntary repatriation: wherein refugees return in “safety and with dignity” to their country of origin;
• Local integration in which refugees legally, economically and socially integrate in the host country;
• Resettlement, which involves the selection and transfer of refugees from a State in which they have sought protection to a third State which has agreed to admit them – as refugees including his/her family or dependants – with permanent residence status. They also have the rights to become, in time, a naturalised citizen of the resettlement country³³.

Several countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, and various European nations offer permanent resettlement to refugees from Myanmar. (See Figure 4, for Myanmar refugee resettlements across the different countries and regions), with the majority of them resettling in the United States. In 2024, UNHCR plans to resettle about 31,400 Rohingya refugees³⁴.

Future of refugees 

The people of Myanmar have been landseekers for many decades, having been forcibly displaced by decades of internal conflict. The lack of protection and recognition of rights has left many from Myanmar in limbo, with many stuck in temporary camps, with a small number of Myanmar refugees securing asylum in participating third countries as part of the UNHCR resettlement program. 

The number of refugees will increase in neighbouring countries due to ongoing political instability, ethnic conflicts, and lack of resolution in Myanmar. The Danish Refugee Council forecasts that the number of refugees will increase in the upcoming  years, forcing more people from Myanmar to leave their homes and seek refuge in other countries³⁵. As a result, some refugees may attempt to undertake secondary migration into host countries, finding employment, or accessing education and better opportunities and conditions. Thus, neighbouring host countries, including Bangladesh, Thailand, Malaysia, and India may need to prepare for the continuing migration and need to develop successful means of integration, echoing calls from the UNHCR for countries to ratify the 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees.  

Addressing the future of Myanmar refugees and asylum seekers requires a multifaceted approach, combining immediate humanitarian assistance with long-term strategies for integration, resettlement, and addressing the root causes of displacement. Furthermore, enhancing legal frameworks, livelihood programs, education and skill development help to address the current status of refugees challenges in the host countries.