Thailand’s government yesterday approved guidelines allowing refugees from Myanmar, who have been living in the camps along the border, to work legally in the country, a move that the U.N. refugee agency described as a “turning point.”
According to Transborder News, the Thai Cabinet yesterday endorsed two draft provisions: one from the Ministry of Interior granting permission for refugees to live outside their designated controlled areas, and another from the Ministry of Labor authorizing them to apply for work permits.
Labor Minister Phongkwin Chungruangkit said the new guidelines, which were approved at a Cabinet meeting yesterday, would apply to foreign nationals living in all nine refugee camps dotted along the border with Myanmar in the provinces of Mae Hong Son, Tak, Kanchanaburi, and Ratchaburi, Khaosod English reported.
These camps, which were established in the early 1990s to house people who fled or were displaced during Myanmar’s overlapping civil wars, are today home to at least 81,000 people. The government estimates that approximately 42,000 permits could be made available under the scheme, according to Transborder News. Phongkwin said that the policy shift was “aimed at addressing labor shortages and driving the country’s economy,” Khaosod reported.
Under the new policy, refugees wishing to work must submit two applications: one to leave the controlled area and the other for a work permit that will be valid for one year. Applicants must provide required documents, including proof of foreign worker health insurance and pay the standard fees, although Transborder News reported that the fees for the first work permit will be waived.
The move has been applauded by the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR, which said in a statement that many of the refugees “have been living in the camps for decades and are entirely dependent on humanitarian aid.”
The UNHCR’s representative in Thailand, Tammi Sharpe, said in the statement that the decision marked a major “turning point.”
“With this policy shift, Thailand transforms hosting refugees into an engine of growth – for refugees, for host communities and for the nation as a whole,” Sharpe said. “By unlocking the potential of these individuals, Thailand is not only upholding humanitarian principles but also making a strategic investment in its own future.”
Refugee rights organizations have for years pushed for the Thai government to allow Myanmar refugees to work, but Thailand has resisted taking such a decision for fear that it would disincentivize them from eventually returning home. Despite this, the situation in Myanmar remains such that the camps have become de facto permanent settlements on Thai territory, with some 47 percent of the population now having been born there, according to UNHCR.
The issue has become more urgent since the U.S. government under President Donald Trump announced sweeping cuts to U.S. development funding at the start of the year. These cuts have had significant impacts on the International Rescue Committee and the Border Consortium, which operated health and other vital services in the Thai refugee camps. Both groups ceased most of their assistance at the end of July, considerably increasing the hardships in the camps.
In mid-July, a network of civil society groups urged a parliamentary committee to allow Myanmar refugees living in Thailand to work legally in order to offset the coming loss of funding and services. As one advocate told the committee, “Refugees can become valuable human resources for the economy if they are granted access to basic rights.”
However, it is more likely another crisis – the ongoing border tensions with Cambodia – that has pushed the Thai government to change policy. The dispute, which erupted into open conflict between the two sides in late July, has precipitated an exodus of Cambodian migrant workers from Thailand. According to the Thai government, of the official total of 520,000 Cambodian workers, most of whom work in construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, around 400,000 have returned (Other estimates put the real number of Cambodians working in Thailand may be as high as 1.5 million.)
This mass evacuation threatens serious labor shortages at a time of economic stagnation in Thailand. To fill this gap, Phongkwin’s Ministry of Labor recently suggested hiring 10,000 Sri Lankan workers, as well as potentially workers from the Philippines, Indonesia, and Nepal. In this context, it makes sense that the Thai government would turn to the large pool of willing workers already living inside the country.
The policy change brings the refugees no closer to repatriation to their own country, resettlement in a third country, or permanent residence in Thailand, but it at least ensures that they have the wherewithal to build some sort of future from the ennui of the camps.
