Mission
Our mission is to provide a strategic shift in the protection of refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons, which will result in more sustainable solutions for refugees, asylum seekers and stateless persons in Thailand and in the broader Southeast Asian region.
The Thai Committee for Refugees Foundation (TCR) was founded in August 2010 and has since grown into an international non-governmental organization headquartered in Thailand with field offices in Myanmar. We are the first and only organization headquartered in Thailand, with a mission to protect and promote human rights for refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons in Thailand, and in the broader Southeast Asian region.
Often times, refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons are excluded from state protection and suffer severe discrimination. They are vulnerable and subject to human rights violations. Thailand is not a signatory State to the 1951 Refugee Convention, its 1967 Protocol, nor the 1954 and 1961 Statelessness Convention and does not have domestic law related to refugees, asylum seekers, stateless and internally displaced persons. The handling of refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand over the past four decades has been considered an external issue by the Thai Government and Thai public. The operations have been carried out by international organizations without engagement by Thai civil society organizations. Consequently, the country’s effort to provide protection for refugees has been mainly ineffective and constrained.
We believe that it is time for a Thai based organization to initiate a mission by the Thai people to help these persons of concerns, as Thai based civil society organizations are better positioned to understand the local context and to urge the government to bring in meaningful changes in the country’s policies on refugees and migrants.
LOGO TCR Head Letter