Burmese Refugees in Thailand Face Fresh Deportation Threat

In April of 2026, 23-year-old Nway became scared of the dark for the first time in her life. She would lie awake at night, jumping at the noise of a car engine humming past the house she shared with her single mother, anxious that she could be dragged from her bed as she slept. Her fear of the dark was not unfounded. As a Burmese political activist who had spent the last four years of her life in prison until April of this year, she was a high-profile target for forced conscription into the Myanmar military, which seized power in a coup in 2021. The military, which now fully controls only around 20 percent of the country’s territory, has conscripted over 30,000 young people since February 2024 in a bid to strengthen their struggling forces. Since then, young people have been grabbed from the street, their workplaces, and their homes, after which they are reportedly deployed to the frontlines and used as “cannon fodder and human shields.” Nway said that her cousin was abducted by the authorities while drinking with friends by the river in Yangon one evening in 2024. He returned home earlier this year to share that “everyone except him had died; he was the one and only lucky man.” Nway’s previous activism meant that when she was released from prison, she was targeted by the police, who would sit outside her home and visit her mother weekly to tell her, “if you don’t give us money, she will be listed.” Concerned for her daughter’s safety, Nway’s mother instead paid the authorities for her to fly safely to Thailand. Nway found a community of Burmese refugees and activists in the northern city of Chiang Mai, many of whom had similarly been targeted for conscription before fleeing the country. Since the military coup, thousands of young refugees like Nway have started to rebuild their lives in Thailand, following in the footsteps of past generations of refugees and exiles. But harassment and arrests from Thai police and a deportation law approved in August continue to threaten their security. The new legal framework has been developed for “administering deportation issues speedily and effectively” in the absence of pre-existing “concrete guidelines.” According to civil society organizations, the new laws are already a source of concern for refugees in Thailand. When Nway arrived in northern Thailand, she was reunited with Pho Thar, another activist and photojournalist whom she had known at university. Both had been held in separate facilities in Yangon’s Insein Prison for years, reuniting only once they had left the country. Pho Thar has already secured his migrant worker’s card, known as a “pink card,” which is the most accessible way for Myanmar nationals to gain legal residency, and Nway is in the process of securing her own. Nway and Pho Thar are comfortable sharing their stories and names because they know they can never return to Myanmar. For Nway, this is because an outstanding legal case ensures she will be arrested and likely conscripted. Pho Thar, who has already been arrested four times by the Burmese authorities, believes he will be killed if he returns. Sitting outside a Burmese-owned restaurant on the edge of the city, he cracks his shoulder, a permanent injury sustained during his last arrest. When Pho Thar was released from prison in November 2025, he knew he was listed for conscription and left Yangon within five days, travelling to Karen State where friends in the People’s Defense Forces helped him cross the border. Pho Thar decided to travel straight to Chiang Mai when he entered Thailand because he believed the risk of staying in the border city of Mae Sot without documentation would be too high. Almost half of the nearly 4 million Myanmar nationals living in Thailand are undocumented and they face regular harassment, extortion, and threats of deportation from the Thai authorities. A 2025 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) identified that police bribes had become so prevalent in Mae Sot that they referred to Myanmar nationals as “walking ATMs.” Fear of the authorities and deportation has ruled the lives of several young Burmese refugees who agreed to speak to The Diplomat on condition of anonymity. One 22-year-old Burmese refugee, Aung*, said that as an undocumented migrant, he found work in a garment factory where he is paid only 150 baht a day – the equivalent of around $4.50 and below minimum wage – and receives one day off per month. Despite his exhaustion, he is grateful for the layer of protection this workplace provides from the police. “I’m always afraid of the Thai police so I rarely go out to the town, I always stay in my factory,” he said. In Myanmar, the parents of young people who have fled the country continue to pay bribes to Burmese authorities so their other children are not conscripted instead. Aung said that until August 2026, his mother continued to pay for him. “If I was deported to Myanmar, I would be taken to the frontlines and I will never go back home,” he said. “I face difficulty in Mae Sot so I always miss my home. I want to go back, but it is not possible.” Thirty-five-year-old music producer Kyaw* also said that his mother, who recently recovered from breast cancer, continues to pay monthly bribes for her three children who have fled the country. He is still waiting for his documents in Mae Sot, and similarly knows that if he was deported he would be forced to join what he calls the “one-way troops” that are sent to the frontlines. He decided to leave Yangon when he went to the smoking area near his workplace and witnessed several young colleagues being kidnapped by military personnel during a work break. Having already paid a 14-million-kyat bribe – over $6,600 – after being arbitrarily arrested and threatened with conscription, Kyaw started the long journey to the border. “I didn’t want to serve in the military because it’s just a civil war,” he said. “Since moving to Thailand, I have to start from zero but if I don’t have anything to eat I don’t care; I will sing a song for the revolution.” Elsa, who fled to Mae Sot in 2023 with her family, said that they had to wait until 2025 for them to receive their migrant worker’s cards. She reported that they did not leave their home for four months between April and August in 2024 due to increased patrols and arrests by the authorities. She now works in an office but said that “it is a difficult life.” Burmese youth protest the military coup in front of City Hall in downtown Yangon, Myanmar, Feb. 4, 2021. (Photo credit: Pho Thar) Since Thai immigration laws do not recognize Myanmar nationals as refugees, and Thailand has not signed the 1951 Refugee Convention, the paths to residency are limited and refugees rely on a broker to navigate the application process for a worker’s card. Interviewees in HRW’s report confirmed that it was unclear exactly what the fees they were paying brokers were being used for in the application process. In late August, new deportation regulations were approved by the Thai government, which facilitate the prompt deportation of “undesirable” foreigners. Civil society organizations have criticized this legislation, calling for it to include safeguards protecting refugees from deportation. As it stands, while the legislation acknowledges decisions around deportation should account for Thailand’s “relevant international obligations” there is no mention of non-refoulement, which would prevent refugees or asylum seekers from being sent back to any country where they could face persecution or serious harm. Two foreign nationals have already been deported under the new legal framework. Thanida Piyachot, a human rights specialist at the advocacy group Fortify Rights, said that “the Thai government’s enactment of regulations that can directly affect people’s rights without a thorough review is already deeply concerning. Now, with the enforcement of this fast-track deportation process, serious questions remain about how decisions will be made in practice when there are no clear standards of safeguards.” Tanyakorn Thippayapokin, the policy, advocacy, and communications coordinator at Asylum Access Thailand, added that it’s very likely the law will be used to extort, harass, and deport Burmese nationals because it is written “very broadly to target anyone staying illegally in the country.” The Coalition for the Rights of Refugees and Stateless Persons, which includes Fortify Rights and Asylum Access, has called for the government to promptly review the regulations with civil society organizations to address gaps that could put refugees at risk of forced returns and have a standard operating procedure that aligns with principles of non-refoulement. For the undocumented refugees who are waiting for their migrant worker’s card applications to be processed, this law adds to their concerns about being deported to Myanmar and forcibly recruited. Everyone interviewed by The Diplomat believed that deportation would result in them being conscripted against their will and likely dying on the frontlines, a risk that does not appear to have been considered under this new legal framework, according to civil society organizations. Piyachot argued that the new law is already impacting the security of undocumented Burmese migrants. “It is creating fear among refugee communities. I believe [the authorities] can use this law to threaten them, and worsen the corruption and extortion,” she said. Meanwhile, Nway is trying to start a new life in Chiang Mai, alongside Pho Thar. Now she is in Thailand, she says she “doesn’t expect a lot. I really want to go back to my country because it’s where my childhood memories are, but it’s impossible.” Instead, she says she wants a simple life. “I don’t want to worry again about what will happen at night, like in Yangon,” Nway said. “I want to sleep peacefully.” *Some names have been changed to preserve respondents’ anonymity.