The junta has reportedly been looking for civil servants on strike against the regime among people travelling to China through a recently reopened border crossing in northern Shan State.
The border gate connecting the Myanmar town of Muse with Shweli reopened on September 4, after being closed since the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020. Thousands of job seekers nationwide have since travelled to the location to enter neighbouring China in search of employment.
Junta-controlled media reported on Tuesday that the military had been trying to identify “blacklisted people and fugitives” in order to block their exit from the country, a reference that includes those charged for joining the popular Civil Disobedience Movement aimed at toppling the regime. The military council said it had provided temporary border passes—valid for seven days—to 1,500 people per day starting from September 13, allowing for 500 people to cross per day over the next three days.
The police force, it said, was in the process of analysing electronic identification data of some 3,500 people set to depart the country over the next week.
Most workers are reportedly looking for jobs in factories and workshops in Shweli, Jiagong and Mansi in China, where they typically earn 60 yuan (US$8.20) per day. However, the temporary border passes, issued by the junta’s immigration ministry, are for visiting purposes only, and prohibit holders from seeking employment in China.
People using the documents to unofficially find work must choose between overstaying their permitted seven days—risking arrest and deportation—or waiting in a growing queue each week to obtain a new pass to return.
A member of the Muse-based Humanitarian Aid Network told Myanmar Now that authorities at the gate had issued queue numbers to some 6,466 people on Monday alone, all hoping to obtain one of 500 temporary border passes granted daily.
The member of the local aid network said that the backlog of applicants would mean that the approval period for these passes would soon be longer.
“Later, people will have to wait until the end of the month for their queue number to be called,” he explained.
Local social welfare groups have been providing food and protection from the elements for people queuing for the border passes, but local news outlets reported that several people had fainted while waiting in line at other Chinese border gates, including Nandaw and Sinphyu. Locals also alleged that bribery was rife in the process of issuing the queue numbers.
The junta-appointed home affairs minister, Yar Pyae, said in military media that people were leaving Myanmar due to job scarcity and low salaries, but the Myanmar army has been waging intensified offensives against the public nationwide since the February 2021 coup in an effort to crush the popular resistance movement, and arresting and murdering civilians with impunity.
