Refugee-led Camp Management on the Thai-Myanmar Border: Governance, Protection, and Humanitarian Leadership in a Protracted Crisis

Introduction

The governance of refugee camps has historically been shaped by international humanitarian agencies and host states, with displaced populations positioned primarily as beneficiaries rather than political or administrative actors. This model, dominant throughout much of the post–Cold War humanitarian system, has been widely criticised for reproducing dependency, marginalising refugee agency, and limiting accountability to affected populations (UNHCR, 2019; Sphere Association, 2018). In response, localisation agendas have increasingly emphasised the need to shift power, resources, and decision-making authority towards local actors, including displaced communities themselves. Yet in practice, localisation has often remained confined to consultative or project-level participation, rather than extending to sustained institutional leadership. (Agier, 2011; Sphere Association, 2018; Core Humanitarian Standard Alliance, 2018; UNHCR, 2020).

Against this backdrop, the refugee camps along the Thai–Myanmar border represent a rare and under-examined case of long-term, institutionalised refugee-led governance. For more than four decades, refugees from Myanmar have lived in nine camps administered under the authority of the Thai Ministry of Interior, while exercising extensive responsibility for internal governance, service coordination, protection, and community life. Through elected Camp Committees, Section Committees, Women’s Organisations, Youth Organisations, and specialised sectoral bodies, refugees have developed governance systems that function as de facto local administrations within a constrained legal environment. (Brees, 2010; Moretti, 2021; Human Rights Watch, 2025).

This article examines refugee-led camp management on the Thai–Myanmar border as a distinctive model of humanitarian governance. Drawing on operational documentation, practitioner experience, and existing scholarship, it argues that refugee-led governance in this context constitutes one of the most durable and structurally embedded localisation models in the global humanitarian system. Rather than emerging as a short-term innovation or externally designed reform, these governance arrangements have evolved incrementally through practice, negotiation, and community legitimacy over successive generations of displacement. (Baguios et al., 2021; Barbelet et al., 2021; IASC, 2016).

The article advances three central arguments. First, refugee-led governance on the Thai–Myanmar border has enhanced protection, stability, and service coordination by grounding authority in community-elected institutions with deep social embeddedness. Second, the longevity of these systems demonstrates that displaced populations can sustain complex governance functions over extended periods, even in the absence of legal recognition or permanent solutions. Third, current transitions, including declining humanitarian funding and Thailand’s evolving policy framework on refugee work rights, are reshaping the responsibilities and risks faced by refugee leaders, underscoring the need to recognise and support these governance systems rather than bypass them. (TBC, 2025a; UN Women, 2025; Public Relations Department, Thailand, 2025).

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