The Myanmar migrant worker network Bright Future staged a protest this morning (1 May) in front of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre (BACC) against the sham election in Myanmar, which resulted in the election of junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing as president.

Migrants working as cleaners in Chiang Mai are saying that they risk becoming unemployed if they get pregnant, and even if they wanted to get an abortion, it is difficult to access in Thailand.

In Chiang Mai’s Santitham district, known as a budget-friendly red-light district, a Shan man worked as a sex worker in host bars, drinking with customers and going out with them. But just before the New Year, he lost his job after contracting a sexually transmitted disease. It was not HIV, but it meant he became unemployed.

Sugarcane farmers and mills in eastern Thailand are facing a deepening labour crisis as a shortage of workers threatens to derail this year’s harvest, with losses expected to exceed 3 billion baht, industry representatives said.

On International Migrants Day 2025, the Mekong Migration Network (MMN) calls on all stakeholders to work together to counter the rise in xenophobia and discrimination and to develop comprehensive policies which protect migrant workers’ rights.

On 28 December, Myanmar will be holding its first general election since the February 2021 military coup. The election has been called a sham and a tool for the junta to maintain control, and many Myanmar migrants in Thailand are refusing to participate in it. Nevertheless, some have expressed concerns over their own safety if they do not vote.

The Cambodian government is failing to provide support to hundreds of thousands of migrant workers with microfinance debts who returned from Thailand because of hostilities in mid-2025, Human Rights Watch said today (26 November).

Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul is delaying the approval of an Interior Ministry announcement extending the stay in Thailand for Cambodian migrant workers whose work permits have expired.

With Thailand and Cambodia embroiled in an ongoing territorial disputes, many Cambodians working in Thailand left the country as several have faced violence and many more felt threatened. As workers try to find new jobs in Cambodia, their employers in Thailand are facing a labour shortage. Both are bracing for substantial losses if the splintered economic relationship isn’t fixed.

Over the past year, as pro-democracy activists continue to face repression and prosecution, the monarchy reform movement has begun to wane. Ultra-royalist groups, once known for filing serial royal defamation complaints and physical attacks on pro-democracy activists, have turned to campaigning against migrant workers.

The Supreme Court has ruled that the Employee Welfare Fund must compensate 35 undocumented migrant workers regardless of their immigration status when their employer had refused to pay their wages.