Read RFA coverage of this story in Burmese
Myanmar’s junta has forcibly recruited migrant workers sent home by Thailand for illegal entry and overstaying their visas in as many as five separate incidents in recent weeks, according to deportees, some of whom said they were released after paying hefty “ransoms” to the military.
Desperate to shore up its dwindling ranks amid mounting losses to rebel groups and mass surrenders, the junta enacted a conscription law that came into effect in April, three years after the military seized power in a coup d’etat.
Under the law, men aged 18-35 and women aged 18-27 must serve a minimum of two years in the military. Young people have been fleeing the country in droves since its implementation, many of whom have traveled to neighboring Thailand where they landed in prison on immigration charges.
Earlier this month, Thailand’s Department of Employment announced that Thai authorities had detained nearly 200,000 Myanmar nationals during a 120-day nationwide crackdown on migrant workers who lack proper identification or documentation.
While it was unclear how many Myanmar migrant workers were deported during the crackdown, the junta announced that Thai authorities had repatriated about 1,000 workers in August and another 400 in September.
The junta announced in early October that 405 Myanmar migrant workers who had been arrested for various reasons and released in Thailand were returned home in September.
A recent investigation by RFA Burmese found that Myanmar migrant workers who had served prison terms in Thailand’s Ranong province on immigration charges were forcibly recruited by the military after being returned home via Myanmar’s southernmost port of Kawthoung in Tanintharyi region in recent weeks.
‘Ransom money’
Deportees and civil society workers indicated that there have been up to five such incidents, and that some of the workers were released by the military after paying large fees.
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A family member of a 30-year-old man told RFA that he was arrested for military service shortly after Thailand deported him to Kawthoung.
“We had to seek help for his release, and had to pay about 70,000 baht (US$2,100) to junta officials,” said the family member who, like others interviewed for this report, spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. “Actually, we have no money, and had to borrow this money.”
In one such forced recruitment on Sept. 26, authorities from Ranong province delivered 127 Myanmar migrant workers to the junta at Kawthoung, according to Thar Kyaw, the chairman of the Meikta Thahaya Self Administrated Funeral Welfare Association in Ranong city.
“Junta officials asked whether they would prefer to go to jail for illegal border crossing or serve in the military for two years,” he said, adding that the deportees were taken to the No. 262 Infantry Battalion base in Kawthoung.
Some of the deportees were released after paying “ransom money,” he said, while those who could not pay were sent for military training.
Lost contact
Family members told RFA they have been unable to contact their recruited loved ones and are worried about their safety.
One person said a young man from their family crossed the border into Thailand to “go shopping” and was arrested because he “had no valid documents.”
“He served two months in prison and then was deported from Thailand to Myanmar,” the family member said. “He was taken to No. 262 Infantry Battalion in Kawthoung because no one paid for his release … We know nothing about his status.”
Junta officials also abducted 23 of 150 deportees and 48 of more than 120 others released from Ranong Prison on July 30 and Aug. 7, respectively, RFA learned.
Human rights activists called on the international community to take action against the junta for its actions.
“From a legal aspect, such abductions for forced military service are completely unacceptable,” said one activist who also declined to be named. “This is against international law and the international community, including the Association of Southeast Asian Nations [of which Myanmar is a member], should level immediate and effective sanctions against the junta.”
Attempts by RFA to contact the chairman’s office of the Central Body for Summoning People’s Military Servants for comment on the reports of forced recruitment went unanswered Thursday.
On Sept. 23, the anti-junta National Unity Consultative Council urged the Thai government to stop deporting undocumented Myanmar migrant workers, calling it akin to “forcing them to serve in the military.”
Translated by Aung Naing. Edited by Joshua Lipes and Malcolm Foster.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Burmese.