UNHCR Record Shows Cambodian Refugee Camps in Thailand Were Emptied in 1999
UNHCR Record Shows Cambodian Refugee Camps in Thailand Were Emptied in 1999
PHNOM PENH, Sept. 30, 2026 — A historical United Nations refugee record showing that Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand were emptied in March 1999 has resurfaced following Thailand’s recent statement at the UN General Assembly concerning Cambodians living in areas that Thailand says were originally opened as temporary shelters.
Thai Ambassador Cherdchai Chaivaivid told the 81st session of the UN General Assembly on Sept. 28, while exercising Thailand’s Right of Reply, that Cambodians currently residing in areas originally opened as temporary shelters in the 1970s had not returned to Cambodia and that their continued presence constituted an encroachment on Thai territory. The statement was reported by Khaosod English, citing Thailand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations.
The statement has drawn attention to the history of Cambodian displacement along the Thai-Cambodian border and the eventual repatriation of refugees under UNHCR supervision.
In a briefing dated March 25, 1999, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that “the Cambodian refugee camps in Thailand are now empty,” following the departure of the final group of 705 Cambodian refugees on March 24 to return to Cambodia.
UNHCR said approximately 50,000 refugees had returned to Cambodia, including 35,000 who received assistance from the agency. Most returned to areas including Anlong Veng and Battambang, while some requested assistance to return to eastern provinces where their families had lived before displacement. UNHCR said 2,500 refugees returned to Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri with its assistance.
The UN agency also said a programme had been established to monitor returnees and support their reintegration, including assistance to rehabilitate local infrastructure and help returnees become self-sufficient.
UNHCR records show that the repatriation process accelerated after the December 1998 peace settlement involving remaining opposition forces. A UN report later recorded that UNHCR assisted about 25,000 Cambodians to return during the first quarter of 1999, while an estimated 11,000 returned spontaneously, with all camps closed by the end of March.
The historical record also shows that the refugee camps operating in the late 1990s were connected to renewed conflict in Cambodia. UNHCR reported that fighting in 1997 resulted in tens of thousands of Cambodians crossing into Thailand, with camps established in provinces including Surin, Sisaket and Trat.
The UNHCR documentation therefore establishes that the organized Cambodian refugee-camp population under its repatriation programme had been returned or otherwise left the camps by March 1999.
The historical record has been highlighted by Keo Remy, chairman of the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, in response to Thailand’s latest statement at the UN.
However, the UNHCR documents do not by themselves establish the legal status or origins of every Cambodian currently living in the areas referenced by Thailand. They document the closure of refugee camps and the repatriation of registered refugees at the end of the 1990s.
The issue is unfolding amid renewed Cambodia-Thailand tensions at the UN, where both countries have used statements and rights of reply to present competing accounts of their border disputes and related humanitarian issues.
Thailand has separately reaffirmed that it prefers dialogue and diplomacy to address outstanding issues with Cambodia, while calling for cooperation on border security, humanitarian demining and transnational crime.
