Call to tackle domestic violence against Burma refugees

By Sarah Goff-Tunks and Caitlin Maloney

TRIGGER WARNING: Please note, this article discusses domestic and sexual violence.

Burmese refugee women need greater economic and educational empowerment opportunities to help combat gender-based violence, according to humanitarian organisations. 

Refugee women now living on the Thai-Myanmar border, having fled the ongoing civil war, are facing increasing rates of family, domestic and sexual violence.

Brahm Press, executive director of the Migrant Assistance Program (MAP) Foundation, said Burmese women have historically been subject to violence by soldiers, including rape and having their hair cut off against their will to humiliate them.

“Historically, especially in Mae Sot, there was a lot of gender-based violence going on against migrant women. They were being targeted by soldiers on both sides of the border,” he said.

“There were other case cases of rape and other violence that happened on a regular basis, sometimes, quite often by Thais against migrants.

“Times have changed. We don’t see that much Thais on migrant gender-based violence or rape, but it still happens… much more so we see domestic violence within families, and so this is kind of a double stigma.

“Women are often afraid to report their husbands or their partners because of the implications of them also being deported.”

There’s a lot of pressure migrants are under right now and unfortunately that boils over to domestic violence, and oftentimes alcohol and drug use may be involved as well.

In November 2024, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reported that worldwide, reports of conflict-related sexual violence increased by 50 per cent compared to the previous year. Women and girls made up 95 per cent of the reported cases. 

Press said there has been an increase in family violence since the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s also a very personal thing, and people are afraid to admit that they’ve experienced this, and so even when women experience domestic violence, migrant women, they are very reluctant to report it or to share their experience with others,” he said.

“So there’s a lot of pressure that migrants are under right now and unfortunately that boils over to domestic violence, and oftentimes alcohol and drug use may be involved as well.”

Myanmar’s Union Taxation Law which came into effect in 2023 requires Burmese migrants working in Thailand to pay 2 per cent of their earnings to the military junta.

Press said that the law has made the situation for migrants a “pressure cooker for the people”. 

MAP started in 1996, working to empower migrant rights with offices in Chiang Mai and Mae Sot, Thailand. They were officially recognised as a foundation in 2002.

 

Much of MAP’s work is with migrants from Myanmar, to provide them information on their rights to labour protection, empowerment and health and education. 

“They come from circumstances that handicap them in many ways, and they find ways to survive and endure, and some of the things that migrants go through I would say are not quite inhumane, but your average person would struggle under such conditions,” said Press.

“So we really owe it to them to find ways to incorporate them more into society and isolate them less because of all these socioeconomic barriers.”

Since the military coup in 2021, 2.9 million people in Myanmar have been displaced, with an additional 45,000 refugees fleeing to temporary shelters on the Thai border.

In 2024, the military junta introduced a compulsory conscription requiring two years of mandatory military service for all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27.

So when women are more economically empowered, then they’re able to make more decisions. They’re more able to contribute and participate in their domestic affairs.

“There was a marked increase in the number of people who decided to cross after that. That was like a breaking point,” said Press.

However, Thailand remains among 44 United Nations member states who are not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.

The convention, which defines the term ‘refugee’, outlines the legal protection and rights refugees are to receive. 

Not being signatory to the Refugee Convention has meant migrants fleeing the war in Myanmar are not legally considered a refugee by the Thai government, but ‘displaced persons’.

“Not being a signatory to the Refugee Convention means that people who are fleeing conflict or persecution do not receive the security that they need,” said Press.

“Right now… we’re seeing a lot of what we call mixed-stream migration. That means these people are not necessarily migrants, but they’re not necessarily refugees either.”

 

Although the Thai government does have policies to protect migrant workers from Myanmar, including a Memorandum of Understanding between the two nations, Press said there are still issues.

“That is supposedly the most secure channel [of migration], and it brings people in from their home country and places them to an employer here in Thailand with [a] work permit and visa and all proper insurance. However, we’ve seen that it doesn’t always work,” said Press.

“It has problems, but it’s hailed as being the most secure, but it’s also costly and timely. It takes at least three months to process and then maybe six months before you actually get a placement.”

As a result of the timely processing, Press said many migrants resort to crossing the border without documentation, with women left undocumented at higher rates, as a result of men being prioritised.

“Usually they’ll go for the men and that’s for a variety of reasons from patriarchal issues, to pragmatic issues,” said Press. 

A 2023 survey of migrants from Myanmar working in Thailand by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) found 30 per cent more women were undocumented than men.  

The UNDP reported that undocumented female migrants are more likely to experience sexual harassment and abuse during migration processes.   

Official identification documents including passports, visas and work permits are necessary for migrants working in Thailand, however gaining such documentation remains a challenge, said Press. 

“There’s a lot of systems in place that don’t always work smoothly,” he said. 

 

For migrants without these documents, a certificate of identification from the military junta is required, but few migrants are willing to undergo the national verification process since the 2021 coup, according to Press.  

“Right now, no one wants to go through them,” Press said.   

Since the mid-1980s, political upheaval has seen an influx in Burmese refugees arriving in Thailand, with around 90,000 refugees from Myanmar taking shelter across nine refugee camps.

Chief executive of Women’s Education for Advancement and Empowerment (WEAVE), Mitos Urgel, who works with refugees in these camps said these migrants also face issues with documentation, such as not being allowed to leave the camps.

“There is no policy for refugees, so refugees are being taken on humanitarian grounds,” she said.

“So the hope is that they return to their country. But then they’re not able to do that because it’s not safe for them to return because the war is ongoing.”

Urgel said the conditions in these temporary shelter camps are basic, with no electricity and limited access to food.

“There are satellite clinics in the refugee camp where they provide basic first aid, although if there are serious cases, then they are being referred to the Thai hospital economically,” said Urgel.

“Livelihood is very, very limited in the refugee camp.”

 

Urgel’s work with WEAVE focuses on empowering migrant women through education and employment opportunities. 

“Our program is geared towards empowering communities so that one day, when it is safe for them to return to Myanmar, that they will be able to start rebuilding their lives,” said Urgel.

One of the many programs WEAVE offers is an income opportunity for refugee women to weave handmade products such as scarves, keyrings, pillows and pencil cases.

The products made by the refugee women are sold around the world, including in Australia, the US, Thailand, Hong Kong, Germany and the Netherlands.

According to Urgel, the program goes beyond providing women with an income.

“It is actually being able to be just responsible, being productive, because imagine yourself not doing anything, you are just dependent on aid. Where is your self-worth there?” she said.

We are able to see that when they first come into the project, the fabrics that they are weaving are quite hard… but then as they continue to weave, it becomes softer, so they become more connected.

Many of the women who work with WEAVE are survivors of domestic violence. Urgel said the weaving project provides a process for healing.

“Once they start weaving, actually they become connected to their culture and that gives them their identity,” she said.

However, she said it was important to ensure the women “are not working like in a factory” when working with domestic violence victims.

“We work according to their pace. Actually, we cannot just pressure them to finish the product,” said Urgel.

Urgel said giving the women financial independence from their partners can help protect them from domestic violence.

“When we are working with the community, the most problematic challenge that they’re saying [they face] is because of poverty,” she said.

“So when women are more economically empowered, then they’re able to make more decisions. They’re more able to contribute and participate in their domestic affairs.” 

 

Access to education is an additional issue for refugees in temporary shelters according to Urgel, as a lack of qualified teachers has limited opportunities for refugees to find a better life in the settlements.

“There are NGOs working with the local education department and they are providing them with skills training. But these are not really competent teachers to teach,” she said.

While limited, scholarships are one of the only opportunities for migrants to gain access to higher education Urgel added.

“There are some really bright students who managed to get scholarships and they managed to get school access to some training, some online training actually, and so they are using it, their skills in order to become teachers in the camp,” she said. 

Urgel said the lack of education resources adds to the poor life quality of the camps.

“If you don’t have a community that is… [going] to school, then you can expect that the quality of life is really very poor,” she said.

However, Urgel said children in the camps hope to receive an education in order to build a future abroad.

“You ask the young generation and the young generation would say we want to have a better life,” she said.

“That’s why they want to learn English, because they want to study abroad and they go out.”

 

Press said people in Thailand still hold a lot of stigma about refugees fleeing from Myanmar.

“There’s not a lot of acceptance and currently with the major recent increase in the number of people from Myanmar trying to flee their country, there’s been some political backlash and so we’ve actually seen on social media at least and some of the news circles more [discontent],” he said.

Urgel said she has also noticed a stigma around refugees.

“I think that is everywhere around the world. You have that stigma because the perception is that refugees come to our country and they take away our jobs; they encroach on our property, in our territory,” she said.

However, Urgel said WEAVE helps reduce peoples’ negative perceptions by creating a bridge between the products the women make and the people who buy them.

“So I think stigma can be a cause of no communication and people don’t understand each other, but when there is that bridge, then it will help reduce the stigma,” she said.

If you or someone you know needs support, contact these services:

• NSW Domestic Violence Line: 1800 656 463
• 1800 Respect National Helpline: 1800 737 732
• Full Stop Australia: 1800 385 578

Videos by Sarah Goff-Tunks and Caitlin Maloney.

Main image by Sarah Goff-Tunks.

UTS journalism students travelled to Thailand as part of The Foreign Correspondent Study Tour, a University of Technology Sydney programme supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s New Colombo Plan, and working with Chiang Mai University strategic communications students in association with Chiang Mai University.