These illegal migrants also include refugees and the percentage of the illegal migrant population is as respectively Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar/Burma, India, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Africa and China.
There are also large numbers of westerners living and working illegally in Thailand, many of whom teach English or run internet-based small businesses and use tourist visas or other types of visa obtained using fake documentation to stay in the country long-term.
In recent years North Korean defectors have attempted to use Thailand as an entry route to get to South Korea.
[3] At least 600 Rohingya Muslims believed to be illegal migrants from Myanmar detained were found in Thailand on 11 January 2013 after two raids by the authorities near the border with Malaysia.
A law passed in 1979, a time when many Vietnamese and Cambodian people were entering Thailand as refugees, gave authorities nearly unlimited powers to detain illegal immigrants indefinitely, with few guidelines regarding the treatment of detainees.