Thai authorities are threatening, extorting, and detaining Myanmar nationals who fled the abusive military junta to seek safety in Thailand, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.
The 48-page report, "'I'll Never Feel Secure': Undocumented and Exploited Myanmar Nationals in Thailand," examines how the Thai police frequently stop and interrogate Myanmar nationals and extort them with the threat of arrest and detention if they fail to pay bribes. Human Rights Watch found this practice to be prevalent in the town of Mae Sot near the Myanmar border, where people refer to Myanmar nationals as "walking ATMs." Myanmar nationals, living under the constant threat of deportation that could put them at grave risk, restrict their movements to stay out of sight of police and other authorities seeking to exploit them.
"After fleeing conflict, persecution, and deprivation, Myanmar nationals need protection in Thailand," said Nadia Hardman, refugee and migrant rights researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Instead, Thailand denies them secure legal status, and its authorities use that vulnerability to exploit and extort them."
Since the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, the junta has carried out widespread abuses across the country, including war crimes and crimes against humanity. Many people have fled violence, persecution, a collapsing economy, and aid blockages to go to neighboring countries. More than four million Myanmar nationals are currently in Thailand, nearly half of them undocumented.
In February 2025, Human Rights Watch interviewed 30 Myanmar nationals living in Thailand. Many are refugees under international law, even though they have not been recognized as such, and pathways to recognized status in Thailand are limited. These undocumented Myanmar nationals are compelled to seek out security and a livelihood in Thailand and to avoid being returned to repression, conflict, and humanitarian crises in Myanmar.
Those interviewed said that the Thai authorities' practices scared and intimidated them, leaving them feeling marginalized and exploited in Thailand. Thai security personnel have engaged in racketeering through a semi-formalized system of extortion that involves "selling" unofficial "police cards" to Myanmar nationals looking for a pathway to documentation or just to avoid arrest. The only option for those not willing or able to purchase such cards is self-imposed house arrest.
A 30-year-old journalist from Myanmar who had fled to Mae Sot said, "The main threat [in Mae Sot] is the police. I was scared of them…. I got stopped [by the police] six times: three times I paid the police money, and they let me go."
Even those paying for "police cards" are not fully protected against deportation. Mass deportations of Myanmar nationals, including children, continue across the country, without regard for the risk they might face upon returning to Myanmar. One woman said that despite paying a bribe for herself and her 12-year-old niece, Thai immigration authorities arrested them both, held them in a detention facility for nine days, and then deported them to Myanmar.
Most of the Myanmar nationals who spoke to Human Rights Watch were in the process of applying for or renewing a migrant worker's card, commonly known as the "pink card." This is the main document available to Myanmar nationals in Thailand that provides a legal status. The process requires an employer to sponsor the migrant worker.
Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or its 1967 Protocol. The country has no refugee law or formalized asylum procedures that are applicable to all nationalities. Instead, in 2023, the government introduced a new National Screening Mechanism under which some individuals, who are unable or unwilling to return to their countries of origin due to fears of persecution, can seek protection.
While presented as a step toward greater international protection, the National Screening Mechanism and its implementing regulations largely exclude certain nationalities from access, including migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos.
Myanmar nationals said that whether renewing their documentation as a migrant worker through a "regularization window" - a specific period during which the Thai government allows undocumented migrant workers to regularize their legal status - or applying for the first time, they relied on a broker to handle the process and paid, often exorbitant, fees to purchase the necessary documentation and manage the convoluted process. In all the cases that Human Rights Watch examined, the listed employer on their migrant worker's "pink card" was not their actual employer, but a fabricated one.
While a pink card provides some protection from arrest, detention, and deportation, it is not the accurate or proper documentation for people who are most likely refugees, despite the absence of a system to recognize that status.
The Thai government should enact legislation that establishes criteria and procedures for recognizing refugee status and providing asylum that meets international legal standards, Human Rights Watch said. Refugee status should be open to all nationalities according to the same criteria, consistent with the international refugee definition, including complementary forms of protection for people fleeing conflict, and refugees should be authorized to work.
In the interim, Thailand should introduce a temporary protection framework for Myanmar nationals, recognizing the immediate needs of thousands of people who have fled persecution or the country's conflicts. The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has repeatedly said that there should be no forced returns to Myanmar: "People fleeing Myanmar must be allowed access to territory to seek asylum and be protected against refoulement."
"Thai authorities should take steps in line with international standards to provide effective protection for people fleeing Myanmar," Hardman said. "The Thai government should end the exploitation and suffering of several million undocumented Myanmar nationals."
