CNI News
4 Mar 2023
Myanmar escapees who left the country for Thailand in recent years are not likely to return to Myanmar due to security concerns, Thailand-based labour activists for Myanmar workers told the CNI.
The activists made the comments over a notification issued by the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok and the notification urged Myanmar nationals who left for Thailand in recent years over their security concerns to contact the embassy if they want to return home.
Internally displaced persons due to fighting
Consultant U Aung Kyaw of the Migrant Workers Rights Network told the CNI, "They are taking refuge in Thailand because their lives are in real danger. The public and civil servants will not believe the embassy's claims that they are inviting absconders to return home out of goodwill. They don't have any houses to live in their hometowns. They are questioning the embassy's claims of goodwill. Jobs are very rare in Myanmar and even if they can find jobs, they will earn MMK 4,800 per day. They earn more than MMK 10,000 in Thailand daily. In terms of incomes, they are better paid here. Moreover, no one can guarantee that they will be provided with work every day. And then, they can enjoy social security, healthcare services and everything humans need in Thailand. I don't think they will decide to return to Myanmar."
IDPs near the Thailand-Myanmar border.
Despite better job opportunities and wages in other countries, they don't want to return home not because of the better lives but because of security concerns, Thailand-based labour activists for migrant workers said.
They said that absconders will not return home as long as freedom and justice are guaranteed at home.
If authorities are really willing to receive absconders back, they should guarantee the latter's security, Ko Thar Gyi, a labour activist who has been helping Myanmar migrants in Mae Sot, told the CNI.
An entrance to a refugee camp in Ohnphyan, near Mae Sot. (RFA)
He said, "Everyone, including me, wants to return home. Whether they are legally working in Thailand by applying for passports or illegally working here or taking refuge, everyone wants to return home. However, we cannot return home due to security concerns. If authorities really want to take back its citizens abroad, they will have to guarantee their security by releasing all protestors they have imprisoned. Only then, will the people who have left the country for security concerns decide whether they should go back or not."
A large number of people have been taking refuge in neighbouring and other countries after the military assumed government responsibilities in 2021.
The information team of the SAC announced that those who are taking refuge in other countries can contact relevant embassies, military attaches' offices and consulates if they have never committed crimes.
