Myanmar junta to prioritise sending workers to Russia and China

Myanmar’s military regime, which remains isolated from most of the international community, plans to allow Myanmar workers to take jobs in China and Russia, countries with which it maintains friendly relations. Having initiated a pilot program to send workers to China in the middle of this year, two agencies linked to the junta are now working to broker job offers for applicants from Myanmar in Russia, an employment agency official said. “While there are reports of good job opportunities in Russia and some companies are trying to get involved, companies connected to the military are the most deeply involved,” he said. "Since they consider Russia a partner country, they want to send more workers there. These two countries are their only allies." He added that the junta’s Ministry of Labour is currently reviewing the process. Before the military coup, employment agencies did not send workers to Russia. While agencies sent a batch of workers to workshops or factories in Special Economic Zones in China’s Yunnan Province this year, the program is currently out of operation pending agreements on immigration rules. Moreover, with fighting ongoing in northern Shan State, the Myanmar military has lost control of territory near the border with China and been forced to shut down border gates, an obstacle to Myanmar workers seeking job opportunities in China. A man who illegally crossed the border into China in 2016 said the journey took seven days, and even with delays and difficulties along the way, the cost was over 700,000 kyat—more than US $500 at the time. “Since we went illegally, we had to run if the police chased us. We still have to run even now and the factory jobs didn't work out. So now I’m working on farms,” said the man, who has been in China for the past eight years. “If you get a good employer, the work situation is fine. If not, you might not get paid and could get arrested by the police,” he added. Since the coup, men and women have continued crossing illegally from Myanmar to China, but some have to return home after suffering various hardships, the man said. There is demand for workers in the construction, shipyard, agricultural, livestock, manufacturing, and food industries in both Russia and China. Myanmar’s junta-controlled ministry of labor has not officially announced plans to send workers to these countries, and the likely cost for going through an international employment agency remains unclear. The current minimum wage in Myanmar is 6,800 kyat (US $2) per day, and due to rising prices, people are struggling to make a living even in townships unaffected by the ongoing war between the military regime and various resistance and anti-junta armed groups. Young people have also been fleeing the country since the junta introduced a conscription policy earlier this year. The junta is seeking to keep young people eligible for military services in Myanmar, even preventing people who come home for temporary visits from leaving the country. On just one day this year, August 1, regime authorities stopped more than 40 workers attempting to return to jobs abroad from boarding their flights. Junta generals and officials have made multiple visits to Russia since the coup. In Naypyitaw, officers who studied in Russia are now teaching Russian language to staff from four junta ministries. Staff at the junta’s ministry of hotels and tourism also began taking Chinese language lessons this November. Labor rights activists have argued that the military junta is also trying to resolve the problems arising from a stagnant economy and dwindling foreign currency reserves by generating revenue from foreign worker programs in China and Russia. The military regime, which claims the authority to tax the earnings of Myanmar nationals working in Thailand, also requires workers abroad to remit 25 percent of their incomes back to Myanmar through designated banks. Failure to pay these taxes or repatriate earnings can result in denial of citizen services such as passport and document provision at junta-controlled embassies and consulates abroad, according to labour activists. If executed successfully, taxes on the earnings of Myanmar workers abroad can constitute a multibillion-dollar source of revenue for the junta.

Myanmar junta to prioritise sending workers to Russia and China

Despite restrictions on young people leaving the country, junta-connected agencies are arranging to send workers to the two countries that supply the most arms to the military regime, and which have recognised its legitimacy on the international stage

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