Non-ILO Reports on Forced Recruitment in Burma

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Description: "The regime’s Labor Ministry has ordered employment agencies to submit their lists of Myanmar migrant workers to the central bank and Foreign Ministry. The order was issued late last month in the wake of new rules requiring migrant workers to remit a quarter of their wages through the junta-run banking system. There are 484 local and foreign employment agencies in Myanmar, according to the ministry. It threatened to take legal action against 70 agencies it said had still not submitted migrant worker lists. Agencies were required to submit the lists every three or six months under the now ousted civilian NLD government, but the junta has changed this to the first five days of every month. Non-compliant agencies will be suspended, warned, and then dissolved if they fail to submit lists again, said the ministry. “The difference now is that we have to submit the lists to the Central Bank of Myanmar and Foreign Ministry too,” an employment agency manager said. The two junta agencies will presumably use the lists to check that remittances are being sent back home, the manager added. “They are starved of foreign currency. So, they are targeting remittances of migrant workers by putting pressure on employment agencies.” Last month, the regime demanded that expatriate workers remit at least 25 percent of their foreign currency income back home through the country’s banking system. Migrant workers who do not comply will be barred from working overseas for three years after their current work permit expires, the announcement warned. The regulation took effect on September 1. On September 23, the regime made changes to the tax law, forcing Myanmar migrant workers to pay a tax of at least 10 percent on incomes earned in other countries. The top destinations for Myanmar migrant workers are Thailand, Malaysia, Japan, and South Korea, under memoranda of understanding between governments. Recruitment of Myanmar workers in Thailand and Malaysia is now declining, according to employment agencies..."
Source/publisher: "The Irrawaddy" (Thailand)
2023-10-12
Date of entry/update: 2023-10-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: fishing, labour, labour issues, Ayeyarwady Region, Ayeyarwady River, Myanmar Fisheries, Federation, Myanmar Police Force, Department of Fisheries
Sub-title: Workers spend eight months without break on fishing rafts moored off the Ayeyarwady Region coast, enduring beatings and deprivation to keep Myanmar supplied with fish paste.
Topic: fishing, labour, labour issues, Ayeyarwady Region, Ayeyarwady River, Myanmar Fisheries, Federation, Myanmar Police Force, Department of Fisheries
Description: "A DEJECTED Daw Myint Myint San was sitting in the small room of the labour office in Ayeyarwady Region’s Pyapon Township, nodding as if she understood what the labour officer was saying. The labour officer, a woman, was brandishing a book of labour law regulations and speaking loudly. “It clearly states in the 1923 law that you cannot get compensation unless you have a death certificate,” the labour officer said. “How can I believe your husband is dead unless you can produce the death certificate?” “But officer, my husband died at sea and his body has not been found,” Myint Myint San replied. “How can I show you a death certificate?” Her husband, U Zaw Oo, left their home in Kweh Lweh Yo Seit village in Ayeyarwady’s Myaungmya Township last August to work on one of the fishing rafts off Pyapon, which are notorious for labour abuses. In October, Myint Myint San received a phone call from her husband’s employer to say he had drowned while trying to escape from the raft. Asked where her husband died, Myint Myint San points to the big distributary of the Ayeyarwady River that flows through Pyapon on its way to the sea. The employer offered Myint Myint San K600,000 (US$402) in compensation for the death of her husband. Thinking the amount too small, she complained to the labour office in Pyapon. However, under the 1923 Workmen’s Compensation Act, which was amended in 2005, Myint Myint San is entitled to receive compensation of only between K150,000 and K450,000 from the employer for the death of her husband if she has a death certificate. If her husband had paid into a social security fund, she might expect a higher amount, but it’s unlikely that any workers on the rafts have such protection. Myint Myint San had no choice but to accept the K600,000. “I’ve been deprived of a husband, but they have only given me K600,000,” she said. “How can I manage with three children?” As Myint Myint San left the labour office, she cursed the kyar phaung (tile rafts), the bamboo fishing rafts launched from Pyapon, which are named after the “tile nets” that workers cast from their sides to catch fish..."
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Source/publisher: "Frontier Myanmar" (Myanmar)
2020-01-20
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-20
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Topic: Garment Factory, Female Worker, Labour Rights
Sub-title: Pregnancy labour laws go ignored by garment factory owners, leaving female workers in perilous positions
Topic: Garment Factory, Female Worker, Labour Rights
Description: "On her way home from work on 9 November, Phyo Ei Ei Khine began experiencing lower back pain. It was not an altogether unfamiliar symptom, her workdays spent bent over a garment factory sewing machine often leaving her sore, but the pain and fatigue that particular day felt overwhelming. Married for three years, she was five months into her first pregnancy. By 2am that night she was up with severe abdominal pain. Pulling back the covers, she saw blood running down her legs. At the hospital, doctors told her she’d had a miscarriage. “They took the fetus away in a plastic bag. I didn’t want to look at it,” she recently told Myanmar Now, her eyes cast down to hide her tears. Myanmar's 2012 Social Security Law grants any employee registered for social security up to six weeks of paid medical leave after a miscarriage, and the 1951 Work and Holidays Act grants this same benefit even to those not registered for social security, though protections for day labourers and employees on probationary periods differ..."
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Source/publisher: "Myanmar Now" (Myanmar)
2020-01-13
Date of entry/update: 2020-01-18
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Myanmar’s top human rights body said Wednesday it will investigate the domestic fishing industry’s use of workers sold to operators by human traffickers following a case involving a university student who went missing for weeks after being abducted by alleged traffickers. Myat Thura Tun, a history major at Dagon University in Yangon, was trafficked by brokers on Oct. 2 and sold to the operators of a fishing raft in Kha Pyat village, Pyapon township, in Myanmar’s Ayeyarwady region, for 700,000 kyats (U.S. $456), according to local media reports. He had worked on the raft for about 45 days when his family tracked him down and secured his release last week after paying 800,000 kyats (U.S. $521). The boy was physically and mentally traumatized, with the upper part of his left ear cut off and injuries on the rest of his body. Myat Thura Tun indicated that he had been tortured by a supervisor on the raft, local media said. Earlier this week, Myo Nyunt, spokesman of the ruling National League for Democracy (NLD), told the Myanmar media organization Mizzima that the party would work with the regional government in handling the case, meet with the victim, and discuss ways to eliminate human trafficking..."
Source/publisher: "Radio Free Asia (RFA)" (USA)
2019-11-27
Date of entry/update: 2019-11-28
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: "Human trafficking, slavery and murder in Kantang's seafood industry..."
Source/publisher: "Environmental Justice Foundation"
2015-11-30
Date of entry/update: 2019-09-11
Grouping: Individual Documents
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Description: This report is based on information submitted by a community member in June 2012 describing events occurring in April and May 2012.[1] The information described the activities of BGF Battalion #1014, which operates along the border of Thaton and Papun districts. According to the community member, the group that is based out of Hpa-an Township, in Thaton District, has committed different abuses against the villagers who are in Hpa-an Township. Between April and May 2012, the Battalion forced local villagers from Meh K?Na Hkee village tract to clear plantation land for two companies, from whom the Battalion officers received money. In Kyon Mon Thweh village tract, villagers were required to serve as soldiers in a local militia.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 41.09 KB
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Description: The following incident report was written by a community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights abuses. The community member who wrote this report described that on May 29th 2012, villagers were ordered to be recruited for a one-year service by Moe Nyo, a fomer DKBA leader now serving as a company commander in the BGF Battalion #1014, in order to form a new people?s militia group. The cost to avoid service was 50,000 kyat per month, which the villagers reported having difficulties with raising. Some villagers who refused to serve, but lacked the money to opt-out and responded to the order by fleeing their village. This report has been summarized along with three other Incident Reports received from this area in: "BGF Battalion #1014 forced labour and forced recruitment, April to May 2012," KHRG, May 2013.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-05-29
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 90.87 KB
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Description: The following incident report was written by a community member who has been trained by KHRG to monitor human rights abuses. The community member who wrote this report described an incident that occurred on May 29th 2012 in Kyoh Moh Thweh village tract, Hpa-an Township, Thaton District, where a group of BGF Battalion #1014 soldiers forcibly recruited villagers for a people?s militia. This report also includes information about the consequent problems the villagers endured related to this forced recruitment, such as having to pay money in lieu, or fleeing the area in order to avoid recruitment. In response to previous forced recruitment efforts, the community member reported that several villagers fled the area in order to avoid the forced service. This report has been summarized along with three other Incident Reports received from this area in: ?Border Guard #1014 forced labour and forced recruitment, April to May 2012,” KHRG, May 2013.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 118.53 KB
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Description: This report includes a situation update submitted to KHRG in June 2012 by a community member describing events occurring in Thaton District, during the period between January to June 2012. Specifically, it describes villagers? education, their livelihood and explains how some of the villagers who have to go and work in other countries because of the lack of opportunities in their area. This report also presents detailed information about companies that have cooperated with KSDDP leaders (formerly DKBA) and BGF Battalion #1014 soldiers to confiscate land for rubber and teak plantations and, consequently, have forced the civilians to clear and plant tress in the plantation without providing wages. Also reported, is forced recruitment committed by one former DKBA leader, Moe Nyo. This report describes changes in the activity of the Tatmadaw and contains information on the villagers? concerns about Tatmadaw troop movement following the 2012 ceasefire.
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2013-05-31
Date of entry/update: 2013-06-22
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 53.38 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during January 2012 in Bu Tho Township, Papun District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed Saw N---, a 39 year-old married father of four, who is both a hill field farmer and village head from K--- village in Day Wah village tract, who described the forced recruitment of soldiers into the Border Guard, and how he had arranged for the release of a local villager who had been prohibited from leaving the DKBA by making a cash payment totalling 1,000,000 kyat (US $1,135). Also described in the report, are instances of theft of villagers? livestock, forced labour and forced portering instigated by the Border Guard. Saw N--- mentions the continuous physical assault and other abuse of local villagers, specifically by a Border Guard soldier called Thaw Kweh. Saw N--- also provides information on village life in regards to healthcare, food security, and education. Saw N--- mentions that villagers have avoided paying for a government teacher and choose to pay a local teacher, whom they pay 5,000 kyat (US $5.65) per student for a year. Concerns are also raised in regards to construction projects in the local area."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-07-27
Date of entry/update: 2012-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 307.05 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted during December 2011 in Bu Tho Township, Papun District by a community member trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The community member interviewed a 40-year-old Buddhist monk, Saw T---, who is a former member of the Karen National Defence Organisation (KNDO), Democratic Karen Buddhist Army (DKBA) and the Border Guard, who described activities pertaining to Border Guard Battalion #1013 based at K?Hsaw Wah, Papun District. Saw T--- described human rights abuses including the forced conscription of child soldiers, or the forcing to hire someone in their place, costing 1,500,000 Kyat (US $1833.74). This report also describes the use of landmines by the Border Guard, and how villagers are forced to carry them while acting as porters. Also mentioned, is the on-going theft of villagers money and livestock by the Border Guard, as well as the forced labour of villagers in order to build army camps and the transportation of materials to the camps; the stealing of villagers? livestock after failing to provide villagers to serve as forced labour, is also mentioned. Saw T--- provides information on the day-to-day life of a soldier in the Border Guard, describing how villagers are forcibly conscripted into the ranks of the Border Guard, do not receive treatment when they are sick, are not allowed to visit their families, nor allowed to resign voluntarily. Saw T--- described how, on one occasion a deserter?s elderly father was forced to fill his position until the soldier returned. Saw T--- also mentions the hierarchical payment structure, the use of drugs within the border guard and the training, which he underwent before joining the Border Guard. Concerns are also raised by Saw T--- to the community member who wrote this report, about his own safety and his fear of returning to his home in Papun, as he feels he will be killed, having become a deserter himself as of October 2nd 2011."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-07-16
Date of entry/update: 2012-08-12
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
Format : pdf
Size: 330.43 KB
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Description: "This report contains the full transcript of an interview conducted in Dweh Loh Township, Papun District by a villager trained by KHRG to monitor human rights conditions. The villager interviewed Saw L---, a 49 year old Buddhist paddy farmer, who described demands for forced labour by Tatmadaw soldiers, including portering and guide duty, as well as clearing vegetation for the Border Guard. Saw L--- stated that villagers undertaking forced labour for the Tatmadaw were denied medical treatment and provided with unsuitable rations, such as stale rice. Forced recruitment into the Border Guard was also cited, with villagers from three different villages forced to pay US $389.61 in lieu of military service. Saw L--- also described Tatmadaw soldiers? demands for chicken and rice as putting pressure on already strained resources, and contributing to villagers? food insecurity. Saw L--- noted that some villagers who are unable to produce enough rice engage in daily wage labour in order to meet their basic food requirements, and that villagers who live in Lay Poh Hta village tract have developed support networks at the village level and reportedly share food with others in times of crisis."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group (KHRG)
2012-03-02
Date of entry/update: 2012-03-13
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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Description: "...This news bulletin provides the transcripts of eight interviews conducted with six soldiers and two porters who recently fled after being conscripted by the DKBA. These interviews confirm widespread reports that the DKBA has been forcibly recruiting villagers as it attempts to increase troop strength as part of a transformation into a government Border Guard Force in advance of the 2010 elections. The interviews also offer further confirmation that the DKBA continues to use children as soldiers and porters in front-line conflict areas. Three of the victims interviewed by KHRG are teenage boys; the youngest was just 13 when he was forced to join the DKBA..."
Source/publisher: Karen Human Rights Group Field Report (KHRG #2009-B11)
2009-11-13
Date of entry/update: 2009-11-29
Grouping: Individual Documents
Language: English
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