Thousands of Myanmar citizens are sleeping on the ground near the border checkpoint with China at Muse Town in northern Shan State, despite heightened tension and clashes, including shelling, between the junta’s military and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA).
They are trying to get through the checkpoint to find work in China– mainly jobs in restaurants, factories, farms and construction sites in remote areas of Yunnan province.
Most are from central Myanmar, especially the war-ravaged Sagaing and Magway regions, and their numbers are rising by about 1,000 a day, residents of Muse say.
Ma Nyo, 28, who arrived from a village in Magway Region’s Pauk Township is leading a group of young women, including her sister, to get jobs at a toy factory in China. She says she is trying to appear strong to the young women stranded with her.
“We all sleep on the road at night. We are all afraid a bomb will be dropped on us or that we will be raped,” Ma Nyo explained.
An experienced job broker in Muse is trying to help them, but the Myanmar Immigration Office has yet to issue them Temporary Border Pass (TBP) cards.
Myanmar’s citizens seeking to work in China usually enter the country with a TBP card.
The TBP cards, however, are only valid for seven days, and officially they are given for travel. Citizens of Myanmar, however, have been using these cards to work inside China since last month, with the number of people arriving at Muse to get the cards averaging about 1,000 per day.
Personnel from the Myanmar junta’s Muse District Immigration Office, however, are engaging in illegal and corrupt practices to process the TBP cards, jobseekers and job brokers based in Muse say.
“People still have to pay at least 200,000 kyats to the immigration officers to get the TBP card. And even after receiving the TBP card, they cannot get into China but have to wait until the [junta] authorities allow them to pass,” a resident of Muse explained.
While TBP cards are getting more expensive due to corruption on the Myanmar side of the border, the cost of a Myanmar–China Border Pass (BP) book has increased much more. Previously, the BP books, also known as “red books”, were only issued to residents of Muse and Namkham. They allow those who obtain one to work in China for one year.
“TBP cards are mostly given only to day-wage workers and cardholders can only do day labor. However, before the coup, Chinese employers helped these workers by providing guarantees to authorities that allowed them to work for months,” a job broker said, explaining that the guarantees from employers attested that the TBP cardholder was working for them and was not involved in any illegal activity.
However, since the coup, most Chinese employers no longer give guarantees for Myanmar workers with TBP cards. Consequently, those who can afford to try to get a BP book from Myanmar officials, which has driven up the cost of one to at least up to 3.5 million kyats.
Ko Tun Tun, 22, arrived from a village near Sagaing Region’s Monywa Town. He had run his own motorbike repair shop before his village was incinerated by the junta troops in June 2023.
After the village was incinerated, its residents scattered.
Ko Tun fled to Monywa, remaining there for a couple of months before deciding to try to get work in China. It seemed like the simplest option, he said.
“If I choose to go to Japan or Korea [for work] it takes a long time and requires me to learn the language. It also costs more. So, I decided to go to China hoping to get a job at a motorcycle manufacturing factory there,” he explained.
The young man’s hope to make a living is, however, in limbo. Although he has received a TBP card, he has been waiting for a week to be able to pass into China.
Some Muse residents and volunteer teams are trying to help people stranded at border gates by donating water and food. However, the crowds of people hoping to find work in China keep growing.
At the same time, clashes between junta troops and the TNLA in Muse over the last few weeks have sparked an exodus of residents from Muse and Namkham. They have been rushing into China through the Muse gates as clashes escalated.
For thousands and thousands more there is no exit.
