Thai Authorities, Myanmar Junta Cooperating in Forced Return, Conscription of Myanmar Nationals

Fortify Rights offers support for Thailand to develop legal asylum procedures

(RANONG, December 12, 2025)—Since early 2024, Thai authorities have worked in concert with the Myanmar military to forcibly return more than 3,500 Myanmar nationals through a single Thai border crossing, Fortify Rights said today. Upon return, Myanmar junta soldiers have conscripted some individuals — at times at gunpoint — into military service. These actions by Thai authorities may amount to torture, refoulement, and human trafficking under Thai and international law.

“It’s cruel and illegal for Thai officials to push thousands of Myanmar people into the hands of the Myanmar junta, knowing the risks of forced military conscription, torture, and even death,” said Matthew Smith, Chief Executive Officer at Fortify Rights. “Thailand should immediately end its unlawful cooperation with the Myanmar military junta, ensure accountability, and establish an effective mechanism to protect Myanmar nationals from forced return, torture, and human trafficking. Fortify Rights stands willing to help Thailand to do this.”

Between February 2024 and November 2025, Thai immigration officials working directly with a labor attaché from the junta-controlled Myanmar embassy in Thailand forcibly returned 3,500 Myanmar nationals via the Ranong-Kawthaung border crossing. Survivors and their relatives described to Fortify Rights how the forced returns involved extortion by officials on both sides of the border and led to forced conscription and torture at the hands of the Myanmar junta.

Between March and November 2025, Fortify Rights spoke with 17 forcibly returned Myanmar nationals, their relatives, and civil society organizations, as well as Thai immigration officials involved in forcibly returning Myanmar nationals. Fortify Rights also collated and analyzed open-source information and photographic evidence to independently assess the scale of the illegal campaign and the Myanmar junta’s involvement in forced returns.

“Even when I was in [Thai immigration] detention, [the officials] told me that my country was calling me back and that they had made an appointment to send me back,” “Kyaw Kalay,” a 26-year-old man without legal immigration status in Thailand who was born and raised by Myanmar migrant parents in Thailand, told Fortify Rights.

Thai officials arrested and detained Kyaw Kalay on immigration charges in early April 2024. Later the same year, Thai authorities handed him over to Myanmar junta officials to force him back to Myanmar. He told Fortify Rights:

The Thai officers interacted with junta officers before we got to the boat [to cross the border]. We had to stand as a group, and they took photos of us on the boat before sending us to the junta officers. … There were Myanmar junta police waiting on the other side [of the border.]

Upon arriving in Myanmar, junta members took Kyaw Kalay to a large sports arena alongside approximately 100 other returnees. He said:

The first question the junta police officer asked me was, “Do you want to be in the military?” … I said, “No.” He said, “If you don’t want to, what else will you do? There’s nothing for you to do outside.” We were arguing, and he pointed a gun at my head. He told me, “What kind of man are you? Why don’t you just listen to me?” and he told me to shut up. … Then, they took us to the 262 Battalion base in Kawthaung.

The junta then forced Kyaw Kalay to undergo military training for approximately four months, during which time they prohibited him from contacting his family. Following military training, officials moved Kyaw Kalay to a junta military base in Mon State, where he was forced to engage in military activities such as patroling and digging bunkers. From there, he managed to escape and join an armed resistance group.

Thai authorities similarly forcibly returned “Kyin Hlaing,” 32, from Thailand to Myanmar through the Ranong-Kawthaung border crossing on October 9, 2025. He told Fortify Rights:

When I arrived on the Kawthaung side, the Myanmar junta police and soldiers were already waiting for us…[and] the Myanmar junta military announced that men between 18 and 40 years old will be sent to a military camp. … [When I arrived at the military camp], the military officer with two stars on his shoulder and wearing a military uniform with the Myanmar flag—we called him Bo Lay [Little General]—told us that we would have to serve in the military for three months. He said anyone who tried to run away would be shot to death. … I felt my life was over.

Myanmar nationals also reported to Fortify Rights how Thai authorities, Myanmar junta soldiers, and informal “brokers” extorted thousands of dollars from them on both sides of the border. “Aye Kyi,” 26, told Fortify Rights:

[After my brother was arrested], a broker, who works as an assistant to the Thai police, told me, “If you don’t want him to be deported, pay 40,000 Thai Baht [approximately US$1,220], and we won’t deport him. This money has to be shared with the Myanmar side, half and half.”

Unable to pay this amount, Thai authorities forced Aye Kyi’s brother back to Myanmar, where the junta forcibly conscripted him. She continued:

I got a phone call from him saying he was now at the “Seven Mile” military camp. He told me, “I will be sent to Min Aung Hlaing [military training academy] on October 16 if we can’t pay. Tomorrow, someone will contact you. Please work with him to save me.” Then, the gatekeeper at the [Myanmar military] camp…asked for 5,000 Thai Baht [approximately US$153].

Most of the Myanmar people who come to ask for help have been living here [in Ranong] for a long time. They don’t have any relatives on the Myanmar side. … When we ask [Thai] Immigration for help, they say that once detainees are transferred to Ranong, the [Myanmar junta] Embassy will come to collect the list of names. After they get the list, they send it to Myanmar, and then the authorities over there will reply with the date, and they’ll come to pick them up [on that date]. Most of the time, once they reach the Myanmar side, they’re taken for military conscription.

Asked what he would like the Thai government to do in this situation, Ko San Win said:

I want the Thai government to have some sympathy. The Myanmar people are suffering. They flee danger and come here for safety—they’re running for their lives. Even if you arrest them, fine, you can do that. But can you not send them back to Myanmar? … They already escaped death [once], and if you send them back, it’s the same— they will die. I just want you to see the humanitarian side. If you really want to help, can you let them apply for some kind of card so they can stay here legally? People who come to work—let them work. People who flee—can you at least let them stay?

Fortify Rights presented its findings to a deputy superintendent in the Ranong Immigration Bureau, and requested clarification on the Immigration Bureau’s standard operating procedures, as well as on the Myanmar junta’s involvement in forced returns. While he declined to elaborate on operational details, the Deputy Superintendent stated:

People detained here are held while waiting to be deported through the Ranong–Kawthaung border, with the Myanmar [junta] Labour Attaché assisting in coordinating their return. I don’t really know what the Labour Attaché’s exact role is… We deport people under the authority of Section 54 of the Immigration Act … I don’t know where they are sent after being deported—that’s up to the Myanmar side. Immigration’s responsibility ends once the deportation is completed.