Freedom House Opaque, informal, and discretionary migration practices Thailand has explicitly acknowledged that it is bound by the principle of non-refoulement,50 and in 2018, it affirmed the Global Compact on Refugees.51 In practice, however, Thailand operates a dual track to respond to asylum seekers and refugees.52 The first is the routine immigration track per the Immigration Act and UNHCR, and the second is the national security track, sometimes known as the “special lane.” 53 The national security track is highly politicized and mainly applied to politically sensitive groups.54 Groups singled out as politically sensitive in the past included the Rohingya, Uyghurs, North Koreans, and people fleeing fighting in Myanmar.55 Following a meeting between Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha and Myanmar’s military chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, in 2017 special policies crafted to stop the influx of refugees into the country were announced. These policies include preventing the UNHCR from screening Rohingya who have fled to Thailand for refugee eligibility.56 In 2021, after Min Aung Hlaing took control of Myanmar in a coup, the close relationship between the two leaders resulted in Thai police being ordered to arrest any members of Myanmar’s government in exile seeking refuge in Thailand.57 It is not uncommon for decisions pertinent to the fate of people on the national security track to be made at a high level, usually with the involvement of the prime minister or the deputy prime minister for security affairs. These are opaque and not subject to oversight. When it comes to deportation and extradition, a similar discrepancy between formal and informal processes applies. First, there is the formal channel for Interpol notices and requests according to extradition treaties. Officially, “political crimes” are non-extraditable, though what constitutes a political crime remains underdefined. There also exists a more ambiguous channel by which special requests can be made from the origin state through personal connections with highranking officials in Thailand. Such channels operate on the principle of reciprocity.58 In several cases, Thailand has decided to violate the principle of non-refoulement at the request of a foreign country; the repatriation of Uyghurs in 2015 and the 2017 detention of three family members of a Chinese dissident are clear examples of this. When a person is deported at the specific request of a foreign government, they generally do not have the opportunity to challenge their situation; there is no legal or judicial review of their case prior to deportation.59 freedomhouse.org 7