'We don't have to wait for others to support us': Myanmar refugees find hope in Thailand's work program

At a glance, Ray Boe doesn't stand out from the tens of thousands of other foreign workers toiling at countless construction sites that push Bangkok's soaring skyline ever higher.

Unlike most of them, though, the 31-year-old came to Thailand's capital from one of the country's nine camps for refugees who have fled Myanmar's decades of civil strife.

The camps, which hug the Thai-Myanmar border, are home to more than 100,000 people — in some cases since the 1980s when the refugees first started arriving.

Until a year ago this month, the Thai government had refused to let them leave the camps to find work, forcing most to live hand-to-mouth on foreign donor aid.

That changed in October 2025, after foreign aid cutbacks — mostly by the United States — forced the camps to slash the food support and healthcare they could provide.

Around the same time, fighting between Thailand and Cambodia over territorial claims had sent hundreds of thousands of migrant workers from Cambodia back home, leaving behind a yawning labor gap. 

Myanmar refugees allowed to work outside of camps

To cope with the aid cuts and labor deficit, the Thai government reversed decades of policy and began issuing the refugees permits to work outside the camps, to help them meet their own needs.

Ray Boe is one of the 6,800 camp refugees the government says have entered the Thai labor force in the first year of the program.

"After the cuts by USAID and other organizations, there is no more regular support for our daily needs, like rice and other rations. And there is not enough healthcare in the camps anymore," he said.

The cuts forced him and his parents to borrow from neighbors and to pare down their already modest meals.

Since last month, he has earned 400 baht (about $12) a day pouring concrete and erecting scaffolding around what's to be a 12-story apartment building in central Bangkok. He hopes to start sending money home soon.

"It will help us pay for food and other basic needs, and for health care for my parents," Ray Boe said.

"Compared to how we were living in the camp before, it will be a big difference, having my own income and supporting my family on my own, not having to wait for other people to support us day to day," he told DW. 

Refugee work program offers hope but faces a rocky start

The program allows the refugees to work in 43 of Thailand's 76 provinces and in any sector not reserved by law for Thai citizens only.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says the government has improved the vocational training on offer inside the camps to better prepare refugees for work outside.

"We are hopeful that this policy would enhance opportunities and empower the [refugees] to realize their potential, as well as contribute to Thai socio-economic development," said Praporn Waenluang, a spokesman for the ministry's information department.

Labor and refugee rights groups have welcomed the program.

"I have met a lot of camp [refugees] who have come outside and worked. They are so happy to work and earn money, a lot of money compared to what they [can] get in the camp," said Siwawong Sooktawee, Thailand project coordinator for the International Detention Coalition.

"This is good because they feel they can help themselves, they can support themselves, not depend on aid anymore," he added.

Yet he and others say the program has gotten off to a slow start, with many flaws to work out.

They say many of the refugees who have taken part have not been given contracts by their employers, only to find the conditions rougher, the work harder, or the pay lower than what they were promised before leaving the camps. The program also lacks a clear system for lodging and settling complaints, they say.

"Many refugees go, come back, go, come back so many times. Some refugees, their families have to raise funds or borrow money in the refugee camps so that their father or their family member will be able to return," said K'nyaw Paw, general secretary of the Karen Women's Organization, an NGO serving the camp's ethnic Karen. 

Financial burdens placed on Myanmar refugees

Siwawong and K'nyaw Paw say refugees are sometimes made to repay employers through wage deductions for hiring them, including medical exams, government permits and transportation to job sites. As a result, they often start work already in debt, sometimes without prior warning.

Akwah, a father of two who goes by one name, left his camp with 20 other refugees in November 2025 for what was supposed to be a job harvesting sugarcane on a farm on the other side of the country for 250 baht per day.

When he arrived, however, he was told to cut eucalyptus trees — a much more difficult and dangerous job, he says — for 200 baht per day. They had to sleep outdoors, with no electricity and only a nearby pond for water.

"We spoke to the boss, but the boss did not care. He said, 'Just do the work because you are already here.' But we said we could not do it," said Akwah, and they left after three months.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not reply to DW's request for comment on the program's alleged problems. The Labor and Interior Ministries, which mainly oversee the program, did not reply to requests for an interview either.

Rights groups say program still needs to improve

Siwawong and K'nyaw Paw say refugees who take part should be guaranteed clear and detailed contracts — translated if needed into Burmese, Karen or Karenni, the main languages spoken in the camps — and an easy-to-access system for filing and settling complaints.

They also suggest that the government open more provinces up to the program and screen the job brokers coming to the camps as middlemen, to weed out the unscrupulous ones.

They say their NGOs and others are working with the government on making some of the upgrades, and that they're hopeful the program will improve with time, so that more of the refugees are able and willing to take part.

For all the program's flaws, though, they say most of the refugees are still eager to apply, even those who have run into problems.

"I had a bad experience, but I still want to go again, because food in the camp is a problem," said Mu Dah Hsit, who fell ill at her job and had to quit after her boss refused to cover the health insurance the program is supposed to guarantee.

"I have no mother, and a father who is sick, and siblings I have to take care of," she said. "So, I have to go; otherwise, we cannot live." 

Edited by: Emmy Sasipornkarn