As of November 2024, around 5,500 urban refugees and asylum seekers from more than 40 countries were living in Thailand, alongside about 86,539 refugees from Myanmar in camps along the border. These figures leave out the many Myanmar nationals who have fled since the February 2021 military coup but are neither registered with UNHCR nor recognised by the Thai authorities. Thailand is not a party to the 1951 Refugee Convention or its 1967 Protocol, and it does not carry out refugee status determination; UNHCR does so under its mandate.

Since its 3rd UPR review in November 2021, Thailand has made important legal commitments. The Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act (the Anti-Torture Act), in force since February 2023, wrote the principle of non-refoulement into Thai law for the first time. The National Screening Mechanism (NSM) began operating on 22 September 2023. At the second Global Refugee Forum in December 2023, Thailand pledged, among other things, to strengthen the NSM and to review its alternatives to detention. On 30 August 2024, it withdrew its reservation to Article 22 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), fulfilling another of those pledges.

For refugees, however, little has changed in practice. In its first 18 months the NSM granted Protected Person status to just seven people, and the RNT submission reports the figure had not changed by the 30-month mark; since early 2026, AAT has been unable to secure bail for a single client; and forced returns have continued despite the new anti-torture law. Since 28 August 2026, a new fast-track Deportation Regulation has made removals quicker without adding protection safeguards; it is analysed, together with forced returns, in the companion factsheet on Transnational Repression. Without a national asylum law, most urban refugees are treated as “illegal aliens” and are shut out of lawful work and public health insurance. Sharp cuts to USAID and other humanitarian funding since early 2025 have turned this long-standing protection gap into an acute crisis for many families.

This factsheet summarises the RNT joint submission for Thailand’s 4th UPR cycle. Its evidence comes from AAT and RBB legal aid case data, testimony from RLN members, AAT’s direct casework on the NSM and immigration detention, and a desk review of Thai law and policy.