As of January 2024, Thailand hosted 3,143,120 regularly registered migrant workers, representing 7.2% of the national workforce and contributing 4.3% to 6.6% of GDP, of whom 44% are women and 56% are men. Total non-Thai residents are estimated at over 5.3 million, primarily from Myanmar, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam, working predominantly in low-paid, low-skilled sectors. Migrant workers’ residence in Thailand is directly tied to their employment through a set of complex administrative procedures; language barriers compound this dependency by preventing many workers from completing registration processes without an agent or employer.

During the 3rd UPR cycle in November 2021, Thailand received three recommendations regarding ratification of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW), of which it supported two and noted one, and five recommendations directly addressing migrant workers’ rights, all of which it supported, committing to “put in place legislations to protect migrant workers from abuse and exploitation.” Thailand has still not ratified the ICRMW, ILO Convention No. 87 or ILO Convention No. 98, nor enacted specific migrant workers’ rights legislation. The 2025 CEDAW Concluding Observations called on Thailand to remove legal and administrative barriers restricting migrant workers’ access to labour rights.

This assessment shows that Thailand has failed to implement most 3rd cycle UPR recommendations pertaining to migrant workers. The legal status of migrant workers is governed by ad hoc, short-notice Cabinet Resolutions rather than a predictable statutory cycle. The e-WorkPermit system launched on 13 October 2025 has placed over one million migrant workers at risk of undocumented status. The Ministry of Public Health admitted in August 2025 that 200,000 to 300,000 fake medical certificates had been issued to migrant workers, with civil society documenting up to 400,000 affected. Employer document confiscation, debt bondage and structural exclusion from social protection persist. This factsheet focuses on migrant-specific dimensions. (For the general labour framework related to formal and informal workers, please refer to the companion factsheet on Labour Rights in Thailand: Decent Work, Living Wages and Social Protection for All Workers.)