Refugees or Border Residents from Myanmar? The Status of Displaced Ethnic Kachins and Kokangs in Yunnan Province, China

Abstract

Since 2009, more than 100,000 ethnic Kachins and Kokangs have crossed into Yunnan Province of China to escape armed conflict in Kachin State and Shan State of Myanmar. China insists that they are border residents, not refugees. This article considers the legal status of the displaced ethnic Kachins and Kokangs from Myanmar in Yunnan Province of China in international law and Chinese law and evaluates China’s treatment of these two groups. It finds that the displaced Kachins and Kokangs in Yunnan merit refugee status under the Refugee Convention and Protocol and that many of them also qualify as border residents under the 1997 bilateral border management treaty between China and Myanmar and the 1990 Yunnan provincial rules governing border residents from Myanmar. It argues that refugee status and border resident status are not mutually exclusive and that those who simultaneously qualify for both types of status should be entitled to the rights attached to each. Therefore, China’s forced repatriation of the displaced Kachins and restriction on both groups’ freedom of movement in China amount to violation of its obligation under the Refugee Convention and Protocol.