In Burma, the junta has suspended work permits abroad since May 1, an attempt to prevent young people from fleeing to neighboring countries, mainly Thailand, where hundreds of thousands of young men and women are trying to escape. take refuge to escape compulsory military service introduced last February.
2 mins
With our correspondent in Bangkok, Carol Isoux
Since the announcement in Burma of compulsory military service for young men aged 18 to 35 and young women aged 18 to 27, hundreds of thousands of young people tried to flee to their neighbors Thai. Queues in front of foreign embassies in Yangon have lengthened and applications to foreign work agencies have exploded, because until now workers abroad were exempt from doing their military service.
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“I crossed the Thai border illegally”
While the junta has just announced the suspension of these work permits, thousands of Burmese are trying to across the border illegally, like Thint, 34, who has just arrived in Mae Sot, a border town on the Thai side. “ Right after the coup, he says, I engaged in activism against the junta and was arrested. I just spent almost three years in prison and when I had just been released and returned home, the military announced conscription. What, now I should go and fight in the uniform of the Burmese army? No, it’s unthinkable for me, and for all my friends too. So, I crossed the Thai border illegally. We do not have the choice. An army must protect its people, this one only massacres them, I will never fight for it. »
Two to three million Burmese already work in Thailand. Illegal migrants are exposed to extremely precarious conditions, regularly denounced as “modern slavery” by international organizations. Burma’s ruling military junta faces coordinated opposition from civil society and ethnic guerrillas unprecedented in the country’s history.
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