Burmese migrant workers in Thailand are worried that a new policy requiring them to apply for an extension to their stay from Myanmar will subject them to conscription into the junta military, according to aid groups.
Under the People's Military Service Law, enacted by the junta in February, men between the ages of 18 and 45 can be conscripted after junta forces have suffered battlefield defeats to rebel forces. The announcement triggered a wave of killings of administrators enforcing the law and drove thousands of draft dodgers into rebel-controlled territory and neighboring Thailand.
In April, the Thai Labor Ministry announced that workers from Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos working under a government visa sponsorship program will have to return to their own countries to extend the terms of their four-year contracts when they expire.
Ye Min, with the Aid Alliance Committee, which assists Burmese workers in Thailand, confirmed the new visa requirements in an interview with RFA Burmese and said he believes Myanmar’s junta requested the policy as part of its conscription drive.
“Normally, workers can renew their books in Thailand, and work at their same workplace – they prefer this system,” said the aid worker, who is also a leader of the Migration Health Assessment Center. “However, they now have to return home for an extension after they have worked in Thailand for four years due to pressure from the Myanmar junta.”
Ye Min noted that many Burmese migrants in Thailand are supporting or actively participating in Myanmar’s anti-junta movement, and he suggested that the junta may have pressured Bangkok to make the new requirements as part of a bid to “cut supplies and support to the rebellion.”
A migrant who is working at a chicken-processing plant in LopBuri, Thailand, told RFA on condition of anonymity that two groups of workers from Myanmar at his plant have already returned home after their contracts expired.
“[The contract] of another group of Myanmar workers is set to expire on June 13 or 14 and they will be sent home,” said the migrant, who declined to be named due to security concerns. “About 26 workers have already returned home in two groups. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of workers will have to go back.”
Returnees at risk
On May 1, the junta activated the mandatory military services law and its labor ministry announced that young men would no longer be allowed to work abroad.
Kyaw Ni, the deputy labor minister of Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, told RFA his administration has requested that the Thai government allow Burmese migrant workers to continue working inside the country without having to return home.
Attempts by RFA to contact the junta’s labor ministry and the Myanmar Labor Attache Office in Bangkok about the new requirements went unanswered Friday.
The Aid Alliance Committee’s Ye Min said it is extremely risky for migrant workers to go back to Myanmar.
"It’s not easy to re-enter Thailand within one or two months, so it’s a very risky system for repatriated workers,” he said.
Aung Kyaw of the Thailand-based Labor Rights Foundation told RFA that his group has also called on the Thai government to allow the migrant workers to continue living there on humanitarian grounds.
“The migrant workers will be forced into conscription if they are in the age range,” he said. “The junta is on the attack both day and night, so the lives of these migrant workers are at risk in the country.”
On May 1, in observance of World Labor Day, labor groups rallied in Bangkok to demand that workers be allowed to apply for extensions to their four-year work contracts from within Thailand.
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.