Myanmar situation

2023 situation overview

2023 was marked by an expansion and intensification of violence across the country, which caused civilian casualties and triggered significant new displacement. Reduced humanitarian access, deepening poverty, and devastating natural disasters exacerbated the humanitarian needs of the displaced and host communities. The intersecting crises had serious development and humanitarian consequences, complicating the search for solutions, intensifying needs and weakening people’s ability to cope.  

Against this backdrop of mounting political, operational and security challenges, UNHCR continued its principled engagement in support of affected communities, including IDPs, refugee returnees and IDP returnees, and host communities. UNHCR maintained its cluster leadership role and worked with partners to deliver conflict-sensitive assistance at scale in protection, shelter, core relief items (CRIs), and camp coordination and camp management across the country. In 2023, UNHCR reached 425,000 people with in-kind support (CRIs), 200,000 received shelter support and 47,000 benefited from multi-purpose cash assistance, which was significantly scaled up in 2023. 

As people fled from Myanmar to escape the new surge in fighting, UNHCR stepped up advocacy with other countries in the region to maintain open borders, access to asylum, and humanitarian access for UNHCR and partners. 

6,500 Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh and Myanmar attempted onward land and sea movements in 2023 in search of protection, security, family reunification and livelihood opportunities. Around 600 Rohingya refugees were reported as dead or missing at sea.

Indonesia continued to receive and disembark the majority of Rohingya refugees and a joint UNHCR-IOM appeal was launched in late 2023 to scale up support. UNHCR called for a comprehensive regional response to address perilous maritime movements and advocate for humanitarian access and access to territory for those arriving in countries in the region.   

Resettlement departures also increased with over 6,700 departures, including 3,200 Rohingya refugees. In addition, more than 2,000 refugees from Myanmar, in Thailand, Malaysia, India and other countries of asylum, were able to access complementary pathways, primarily to Australia and Canada. This includes a small but growing number of Rohingya refugees, some 275 individuals, who were able to find solutions via private sponsorship, labour mobility, education and other pathways.   

Promising steps were made to identify, reduce and address statelessness in 2023. Together with the Regional Support Office of the Bali Process, UNHCR developed a toolkit for inclusive civil registration and a guidance note on birth registration for civil registrars, which show pathways towards universal birth registration, addressing an important risk factor for statelessness in the region.

In Thailand, UNHCR worked with a partner and submitted over 3,500 nationality and permanent residency applications on behalf of stateless persons via the Statelessness Reduction and Community Sensitization Project.  

The ripple effects of climate change continued to be felt and intensified the hardships experienced by displaced communities, including many in fragile and conflict-affected contexts, and critically impeded their ability to secure safety, essential resources, and sustainable livelihoods.

A UN Flash Appeal was launched to ramp up urgent life-saving support to refugee and Bangladeshi communities affected by the devastating Cyclone Mocha in May 2023.