| Country: | Thailand |
| Details of Formation: | The group was set up in 1980 to guard the border and to run the refugee camps on the Thai-Cambodia frontier |
| Details of Termination: | The group was dissolved and replaced in 1988 by the Displaced Persons Protection Unit, which was supposed to be a specially trained police force. The exact date when the unit was dissolved is unclear because it is only reported that during summer time it should be replaced. There is one source (November 1988) that indicates that the PGM has actually been replaced. |
| Purpose: | The main task of the group was the supervision and control of refugee camps at the Cambodian border, as well as patrolling and protecting the border from attacks. |
| Organisation: | While there is no information on the group’s leadership, it has been reported that the group is responsible to the Supreme Command, rather than the regular army. |
| Weapons and Training: | -- |
| Size: | -- |
| Reason for Membership: | As members were able to extort and plunder refugees (collecting “taxes” or “fees”, stealing money and goods, etc.), this could have been an incentive to join, especially considering those individuals who were recruited from unemployed youths. |
| Treatment of Civilians: | According to news sources, the group was characterized by arbitrary abuse of refugees and was responsible for murder, physical assault, torture, rape, extortion and robbery/plunder. Overall, the PGM was not effective at protecting civilians, particularly their target group, refugees. |
| Other Information: | To protect the border from attack by Vietnamese and to organize and "protect" Cambodian refugees in camps on the border. |
| References: | Information was taken from news sources listed in the PGMD. |