Thailand’s National Screening Mechanism: Initiating ‘Asylum’ Procedures in a Non-Signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention

Abstract

Thailand does not have a domestic legal framework that specifically recognizes the right of forcibly displaced individuals to seek asylum from persecution. Nonetheless, in September 2023, Thailand’s Immigration Bureau has implemented an immigration procedure to screen and provide domestic legal protection against refoulement for those granted “Protected Person” status under the Regulation of the Office of the Prime Minister on the Screening of Aliens Who Enter into the Kingdom and are Unable to Return to the Country of Origin B.E. 2562, nicknamed the National Screening Mechanism (NSM). Despite being a non-signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and relevant protocols, various aspects of Thailand’s NSM resemble the Refugee Status Determination (RSD) procedure that has been operated by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s in Thailand within the last few decades. However, Thailand’s NSM is part of the state-run immigration process, which is closely linked with its national security as well as political interests within the Southeast Asian region. As such, the screening mechanism may consider criteria other than an individual’s risk of harm from persecution, and thus may differ from the general context of international protection that lies essence to most refugee screening mechanisms. Therefore, a debate arises as to whether Thailand’s recent screening mechanism is a national asylum system as anticipated by the international community, or whether the promised legal protection is rather a technical argument to minimize deportation within a larger yet problematic legal framework – the latter of which still presents various restrictions to fulfillment of fundamental human rights and may not constitute a durable solution for forcibly displaced individuals.