A refugee is someone who flees to a foreign country for safety due to war, terrorist invasion, natural disaster, persecution, or other types of threatening conditions. A refugee must be outside their country of nationality or habitual residence. They must have a well-founded fear of return to that country. Their fear must be of harm that amounts to persecution. They are unable to seek protection anywhere in their country.

The cornerstone of the 1951 Convention is the principle of non-refoulement contained in Article 33. According to this principle, a refugee should not be returned to a country where they face serious threats to their life or freedom.

Other rights contained in the 1951 Convention include:

• The right not to be expelled, except under certain, strictly defined conditions (Article 32)
• The right not to be punished for irregular entry into the territory of a contracting State (Article 31)
• The right to non-discrimination (Articles 3 and 5)
• The right to decent work (Articles 17 to 19 and 24)
• The right to housing, land and property, including intellectual property (Articles 13, 14 and 21)
• The right to education (Article 22)
• The right to freedom of religion (Article 4)
• The right to access to justice (Article 16)
• The right to freedom of movement within the territory (Article 26 and Article 31 (2))
• The right to be issued civil, identity and travel documents (Articles 12, 27 and 28)
• The right to social protection (Articles 23 and 24 (2-4)).

Thailand has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention and presently has no laws in place to provide refugees with any legal status. In effect, this means the thousands of refugees living in urban areas are undocumented. This puts them at constant risk of arrest, detention and deportation back to danger by the Thai authorities. Despite the closed door approach  Thailand has hosted nearly 3 million refugees over the past 3 decades. Since  1975, have a large number of refugee from Laos Cambodia, Vietnam and Myanmar.