The junta’s Labor Ministry has instructed overseas employment agencies to suspend recruitment drives as of Feb. 13, according to the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association (MOEAA).
The suspension comes after the regime introduced mandatory military service for the young population, which is expected to trigger a stampede for the border. Nationwide, 14 million people – 6.3 million men and 7.7 million women – are eligible for conscription, according to the 2019 census.
The ministry has not issued an official suspension notice but instead replied to agencies seeking permission to post recruitment letters that it had stopped accepting international employment offers.
“The ministry said it had suspended accepting job offers from around the world as of Feb. 13. It did not say how long the suspension would last,” said an MOEAA official.
The abrupt suspension has created problems for employment agencies, said a manager.
“We have to spend a lot of time to get a letter of job offers. We have to negotiate an agreement with the foreign employer, and there is a long process before we get the contract to hire people for him. The ministry has now suspended it abruptly, which causes problems for us,” said the manager.
The order does not affect people hired for job contracts posted before Feb. 13.
Employment agencies send 500 to 800 legal migrant workers daily to Thailand under a government-to-government memorandum of understanding. Between 200 and 300 people are sent daily to other countries, including Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea and Japan.
The conscription law, which was activated by the regime on Feb. 10, requires all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 to serve in the Myanmar military for two to five years.
The call-up to fight in a military widely reviled for perpetrating countless war crimes on civilians is expected to accelerate young people’s plans to study or work abroad.
