Thailand-Myanmar border-based organizations call for refugees to be allowed to work

Community-based organizations (CBOs) operating along the Thailand-Myanmar border have called on the Thai government to allow the more than 108,000 refugees living in nine camps to be allowed to work legally in Thailand.

Eleven Thai and Myanmar CBOs submitted a request to the heads of five key committees, including national security, legislative affairs, labour, foreign affairs, and social welfare, in Thailand’s House of Representatives – the lower house of the National Assembly – on July 15.

They called on the committees to allow refugees in the nine camps located along the Myanmar border, some of which were established nearly 40 years ago, to work legally in Thailand in a public statement made on July 17. This was in response to the further humanitarian aid cuts facing refugees in the camps on July 31.