  The continuous pumping of atoms into a Bose-Einstein condensate via
spontaneous emission from a thermal reservoir is analyzed. We consider the case
of atoms with a three-level $\Lambda$ scheme, in which one of the atomic
transitions has a very much shorter life-time than the other one. We found that
in such scenario the photon reabsorption in dense clouds can be considered
negligible. If in addition inelastic processes can be neglected, we find that
optical pumping can be used to continuously load and refill Bose-Einstein
condensates, i.e. provides a possible way to achieve a continuous atom laser.
