The Myanmar military regime is cracking down on citizens who hold passports marked “for visit” (PV) if they are suspected of going abroad for work purposes.
Myanmar’s Ministry of Labor on Wednesday put out a notice on state media that citizens who want to go abroad for work need documents including a passport “for job purposes” (PJ) and overseas workers identity card (OWIC) and warned them to follow all legal procedures.
According to the ministry, people who try to go abroad on a PV to do business or work will be sent home, and if airport officials discover that they carry insufficient documents, they will lose all the money they spent to go abroad including the price of their ticket.
“A friend who works at Yangon International Airport told me that officials from Naypyitaw are carrying out the operation personally,” said a Yangon resident who is preparing to go to Thailand this month. “He also said that due to the election and conscription laws, they are trying to stop people leaving the country. The PV is only a pretext.”
Since the Conscription Law was promulgated on Feb. 10, many people, especially the young, have fled the country, and the junta has been trying various ways to stop them.
The Conscription Law requires all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to join the military. The first intake of forced conscripts came in March, prompting many to flee abroad using their PV.
They mostly go to Thailand, Malaysia and other neighboring countries, both to escape the conscription law and to look for job opportunities. A few head to Japan, Dubai and other countries further afield, where the visa and job application procedures are more difficult.
In early May, the junta also suspended permits for men to work abroad amid efforts to secure more military recruits.
“Airport authorities are blocking both men and women. Mostly they target young people between 22 and 32, but there’s no guarantee at any age that you can get through the airport on a PV,” a source from the Union of Myanmar Travel Association told The Irrawaddy.
The junta’s stated distinction between PV and PJ is merely a pretext, while the true purpose is to prevent conscription-age people leaving the country, he added.
But there is no guarantee of making it through the airport even for people who are not of conscription age, hold a PJ and have all documents required to work in another country. All are being questioned closely and many are sent back home.
“If they are not going under a government-to-government memorandum of understanding, they are not sure to pass the airport, even if they are under or over the conscription age. Some are allowed to go, but it’s very rare,” the owner of an overseas employment agency in Yangon said.
Airport authorities are allowing some passengers to go abroad if they need medical treatment but question them closely and check all their documents repeatedly to verify whether that is true or not. If for example there is more than one caregiver accompanying the person, authorities will check closely whether they are related, said the Yangon resident planning to go to Thailand.
The crackdown started a month ago as the exodus of young people fleeing conscription intensified.
Even people who have settled abroad and come back for a visit now face trouble when they want to leave again, a UMTA source said.
As the junta faces growing defeats on all frontlines against the joint resistance forces of ethnic armed groups across the country, it is resorting to increasingly desperate measures reinforce its troops.
Immigration police in neighboring countries are not always compassionate. In early September, a group of 27 people who tried to cross the Tanintharyi border to look for work in Thailand were handed back to Myanmar authorities and subsequently drafted into the military.
