Thailand Will Allow U.N. to Vet Refugees

European Pressphoto Agency

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar on 

Friday waited for registration at a southern 

Thailand immigration-detention center.

The Wall Street Journal

By JAMES HOOKWAY

BANGKOK—Thailand will grant United Nations relief workers access to suspected Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, the U.N. said on Wednesday, and the government might also seek help from Myanmar authorities to help identify some of the nearly 1,000 people immigration officials detained here in the past two weeks.

The rising number of people arriving in Thailand, which until now has tried to intercept boats carrying migrants and force them to go to third countries, underscores the extent of the growing exodus of Rohingyas from western Myanmar.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees said 115,000 other Rohingyas remain in refugee camps in western Myanmar following a series of clashes with local Buddhists that left more than 170 people dead last year.

U.N. officials have said many, including women and children, appear to be opting to making the risky sea voyage south to Thailand and Malaysia to avoid any future violence in Myanmar, where authorities accuse them of being illegal immigrants and deny them citizenship.

As of Wednesday, officials at Thailand's Internal Security Operations Command confirmed that 857 people have been detained this year from safe houses to which they had been taken by human traffickers, or intercepted in boats in southern Thai waters.

Late Wednesday, Manit Pienthong, the local government chief in Kuraburi in southern Thailand, said authorities had detained a group of 88 Rohingyas whose boat landed earlier in the day. The detainees were provided with food and water and taken to a local immigration center, Mr. Manit said. Other suspected Rohingya refugees have also been detained in Malaysia in recent weeks.

"The Thai authorities have agreed in principle to give us access," Golam Abbas, the UNHCR's representative in Thailand, said Wednesday. "We would like this to happen as soon as possible so that we can jointly look at their immediate humanitarian and protection needs."

He added that if any of the detained people are seeking asylum, their need for protection should be properly assessed, although Thai officials say they plan to deport the detainees if they are from Myanmar.

The plight of Myanmar's 800,000 Rohingyas is attracting growing international attention, especially in the Muslim world.

The Myanmar government doesn't recognize them as one of its 135 ethnic groups, calling them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Rohingyas face discrimination in Myanmar and are prevented from traveling freely in the country, despite the sweeping political overhauls President Thein Sein enacted after he took over from the previous military regime in 2011.

Last year's violence, which was concentrated in western Rakhine State, prompted 13,000 Rohingyas to flee the country in 2012, the UNHCR said, with at least 2,000 more leaving in the first week of this year, sometimes via Bangladesh.

In past years, Thai authorities often have opted to stop boats carrying suspected Rohingyas when they enter Thai waters, instead sending them to other countries after providing more fuel and supplies. In some instances, those boats have sunk in stormy waters, killing passengers.

Thai authorities also previously have transported detainees across its land border with Myanmar without consulting the U.N.'s refugee agency, prompting an outcry from human-rights groups.

But as awareness of the Rohingyas' problems widens, Thailand appears to be opting to coordinate with the U.N. and other agencies as it responds to the influx.

Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra on Tuesday told reporters that the government would discuss the possible repatriation of the migrants with the U.N.'s refugee commission.

"In the meantime, Thailand has the duty to take care of them. We are not going to send them anywhere yet because we have to look into the cause and talk to the country which will accept them, and [determine] their country of origin," she said.

Sihasak Phuangketkeow, permanent secretary of Thailand's Foreign Ministry, said on Tuesday that Thailand might seek assistance from Myanmar in identifying the detainees.

Write to James Hookway at james.hookway@wsj.com

A version of this article appeared January 17, 2013, on page A13 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Thailand Will Allow U.N. to Vet Refugees.