Thailand in the big business of housing draft dodgers. Which is good that the people are doing this but idk how this affects the Thai people and economy.
Thai PM has warned Burmese over illegal entry as per this post here. Historically, Thailand is where Burmese exiles have always escaped to during political strife. During British occupation of Burma, hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees lived in Thailand and formed a guerilla army that successfully participated in the liberation of Burma. Soon after independence different political and ethnic factions within the Burmese army that was created from merging the Burmese guerilla army with the British-trained colonial army mutinied into a civil war, refugees have streamed into Thailand on an annual basis. UN and international humanitarian agencies have long operated on the Thai-Burmese border for decades providing economic boost in those marginal regions to Thailand. Finally Thailand has <1% unemployment and has long welcomed and recruited Burmese expat workers currently estimated to be around 4 million, half of them believed to be illegal. This additional influx is a somewhat of a welcome boost.
Thailand in the big business of housing draft dodgers
I’d heard the opposite, genuinely don’t know what the situation is since I’m nowhere near it
Which is good that the people are doing this
Agreed
but idk how this affects the Thai people and economy.
Seems like any plausible difficulties that could result are really unimportant given the context of what these people are fleeing.
Helped a friend flee Myanmar the day the news hit.
He was lucky he had a passport so he could immediately start the visa process. The next day there were queues in front of the Thai embasseys and consulates of thousands of people. Thai officials announced they’d only process 400 requests a day.
when my friend finally arrived in Thailand, immigration took all the Burmese nationals aside for hightened scruteny. It took him more than 4 hours of being detained and questioned. I suspect they wanted a bribe (they used all kinds of bullshit reasons to send hin back, like "1000 usd is insufficient amount of cash to havr with you, 1000 usd is not Thai Bhat, return ticket is fake (it was not)).
they eventually let him pass because we made noise through our Thai connections. The rest of the Burmese nationals who were detained were likely sent back.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
“As a person living in this country, I only have two options: to go abroad illegally or die here,” Thwel told The Associated Press by phone while traveling to a border area to try crossing into Thailand with a small group of like-minded people.
Some observers believe a mass exodus of young talent is taking place and could become a social problem, with their exit heightening the instability that followed the military takeover that now amounts to a civil war.
Like many professionals, she joined the Civil Disobedience Movement that was formed to oppose military rule after the army’s 2021 seizure of power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi.
On Feb. 10, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, chair of Myanmar’s ruling military council, ordered the 2010 conscription law be activated to replenish the ranks that have been depleted by the struggle to quash a nationwide pro-democracy insurgency.
He also spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of the legal consequences; more than 150 journalists were arrested after the army sized power, and more than one-third remain locked up, according to the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders.
Myanmar’s shadow National Unity Government, the leading political body of the pro-democracy resistance, declared that the public is not required to comply with the conscription law, urging them instead to intensify their participation in the fight against army rule.
The original article contains 1,158 words, the summary contains 230 words. Saved 80%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
