CNI News

18 July 2023

Because the job opportunities and economy are not good as result of local instabilities, many Myanmar citizens are leaving for foreign countries to work.

In some countries, Myanmar citizens are being oppressed at worksites and social community, said the people helping Myanmar workers.

Many Myanmar citizens have entered Thailand since 2021 legally or illegally. As a result of local instabilities, Thai authorities are mainly checking and arresting Myanmar citizens and extorting money as well as the employers in Thailand are increasingly exploiting Myanmar workers reportedly.

Moreover, because there are two governments in Myanmar at present, when they find it difficult about something, Myanmar migrant workers tend to come to the organizations that are helping workers to ask for help, said Ko Thar Gyi helping Myanmar migrant workers to CNI News. 

Thai authorities were arresting Myanmar migrants

“The employers in Thailand tend to keep the migrant workers' passports, pink cards called temporary worker certificates and Myanmar national registration cards. The embassies in Thailand aren't able to help effectively about it. Currently, when Myanmar nationals get into trouble in Thailand, they come to the organizations like ours to ask for help. We help them as much as we can. The embassy is mainly responsible to solve the problems for their citizens as much as they can. The embassy never helped effectively. Bad officials tend to oppress Myanmar workers in various reasons such as incomplete evident documents, expiries, and so on. Only when a migrant worker has been even allowed to renew by the Thai government, many Myanmar workers were arrested and extorted and threatened." he said.

In Malaysia, which is the second country with the second highest number of Myanmar citizens, although there is no violation of rules in the workplace and oppress from the social community, because the number of Myanmar nationals who smuggled into Malaysia has greatly increased, more checks and arrests have been conducted reportedly. 

Although there are smugglers from other countries, Myanmar citizens who smuggled into Malaysia outnumbers other citizens and their jobless rate has increased as well. Moreover, Myanmar nationals who come on visit visas are more checked than any other nationals at Malaysian airports, said Hmwar Michael helping Myanmar citizens in Malaysia to CNI News.

Myanmar citizens arriving in front of the Directorate of Labor

"The number of smugglers is by the hundred or by the thousand each day, so the employers don't dare to hire smugglers and those who overstay. So, the jobless have increased because they aren't employed in their motherland. They are already starving. In some regions, even houses are no more. Many houses were set fire and some people were expelled. Because they had no more food to eat in their mother country and couldn't live on anything, they bought all the properties they owned and left for other countries. There are so many incidents like that." he said.

Among the countries where Myanmar citizens are working, South Korea is full with democracy standards and not only the government but also employers have humanitarianism. So, Myanmar workers in South Korea are more convenient than those in other countries reportedly. Because the Korean history is similar with Myanmar,
South Korean people sympathize and help Myanmar people more, said Ko Khant Ne Kyi,from the Migrant Worker Assistance Center in Busan to CNI News.

" In South Korea, there are problems relating to that passports are not renewed. But the South Korean government issue a visa if you tell them the reason why you can't go back to Myanmar for the time being. If you have taken the kind of visa, Myanmar embassy there doesn't renew your passport. But the Korean government has issued the visas like that continuously. If you can't renew your passport, you can't board a plane. So, I don't know if there was a negotiation between the two governments, Myanmar embassy told that they would renew the passports and kept the passport books. You'll have to wait six months or one year. there is a difference between South Korea and other countries." he said.

The number of Myanmar people who go abroad for work has greatly increased from 2021 on and of them, some are okay and others are getting into trouble. Because those who want to go abroad have increased, scam brokers have increased more than ever and there are more and more cases of being cheated. 

According to some reviews, there might be a scarcity of labor in local due to the fact that the number of Myanmar people who are going abroad has increased.