![\"myanmar-protest-hlaing-twp-yangon-mar23-2021.jpg\"](\"https:\/\/www.rfa.org\/english\/news\/myanmar\/urban-exodus-03232021173045.html\/myanmar-protest-hlaing-twp-yangon-mar23-2021.jpg\/@@images\/f9c796f4-2218-4565-946f-f3c93f02101c.jpeg\" "\\"myanmar-protest-hlaing-twp-yangon-mar23-2021.jpg\\"")
Exodus of workers<\/strong><\/p>\n The unending violence and life-threatening, indiscriminate shooting by security forces in crowded urban areas have sparked an exodus of tens of thousands from Mandalay, Yangon, and Naypyidaw, witnesses said.<\/p>\n Residents in the three largest cities say they have had enough with police and soldiers shooting up neighborhoods, breaking into houses and shops, and destroying property.<\/p>\n Most of those leaving Yangon are from Hlaingthaya, Shwepyitha, North Dagon, South Dagon, North Okkalapa and Dagon Seikkan townships, where millions of migrant workers work in factories. Authorities placed the six townships under martial law after a series of fires and a bloody crackdown on March 14-15.<\/p>\n Civil servants who walked off their jobs to join a nationwide civil disobedience movement also are fleeing to the countryside to avoid possible arrest.<\/p>\n When protests and police violence forced factories to shut down following the military takeover, many migrant workers, also hit by plant closures amid the coronavirus pandemic, said they are facing more hardship now and live each day in fear.<\/p>\n \u201cAll these factories in Hlaingthaya operate with migrant labor, and these migrant workers faced with unemployment have no reason to stay when they have no money for food or rent,\u201d a worker from Ayeyarwady region told RFA.<\/p>\n A human resources employee from Labutta in Ayeyarwady region said that workers fear for their safety in Yangon.<\/p>\n \u201cAs the number of fatalities rises, our parents back home are very worried,\u201d he said. \u201cIt may not be safe even in our hometowns because there are troubles everywhere, but I think it would be safer there than in Yangon.\u201d<\/p>\n Out of money<\/strong><\/p>\n Some workers have run out of money and have not been paid their previous month\u2019s wages because of plant closures, said garment factory worker Than Than Soe.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd it\u2019s very scary because there is gunfire every night around 11 p.m. or midnight,\u201d he said. \u201cWe aren\u2019t getting proper sleep, so we decided to go back home. We will come back when everything settles down and jobs are available again.\u201d<\/p>\n Hlaingthaya, a major Yangon industrial zone, has a population of more than 1 million people, making it the most populous township in all of Myanmar. At least 50 people were killed there when soldiers and police fired on protesters on March 14. Following a declaration of martial law there the next day, residents began facing shortages of food and drinking water.<\/p>\n A worker who said he is leaving Yangon\u2019s Kyaukmyaung ward and returning home to western Rakhine state said the situation is completely unstable.<\/p>\n \u201cWe couldn\u2019t find any jobs for over a year because of COVID-19, and now because of this political instability,\u201d he said. \u201cLife is very difficult here especially for people like us living from hand to mouth, so we decided to go back to our hometowns.\u201d<\/p>\n A worker in Mandalay with an infant child said gunfire every night prevented them from sleeping.<\/p>\n \u201cNobody knows when this violence might come into their street,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t feel safe either during daytime or nighttime. We are living in fear every day. That\u2019s why I decided to go back to my village.\u201d<\/p>\n