“I had to leave home because I didn’t want to go to the military. I’m not happy in Mae Sot, where I feel fear every time I see police,” said Ah Nge Kaung (name changed) in a tired voice.
He has just turned 19 years old. He fled from a small town in Mon State. He has no parents, no background, and he has not even finished elementary school. He carved out his life in a fritter hut together with his aunts – smelling of frying. Their fritter shop has been established as an honorable brand in their town for years, and even though their family life was not totally beautiful, they could not only live well but also be strong in savings.
“When the law to join the military comes out, we are the lowly and we are uneducated, so we have to join the military before others. That’s why my aunts sent me quickly with a reliable broker,” said Ah Nge Kaung, who arrived in Mae Sot in mid-February (2024).
He doesn’t know what politics is; he doesn’t know why people are being forced to join the military; he doesn’t know why people who honestly make a living on their own are forced into the army. He was not only looking at a soldier with a gun, but he was also a person who didn’t dare look at the ward elders or even the 100 houses group elder, so he had to come to Mae Sot after ruining the life he had built—without his own desire.
“I have a job here, so I have enough food, and I have saved some money, but I dare not go anywhere. I am afraid of everything. I just want to go home,” said Ah Nge Kaung, who is at a livestock farm, sitting cross-legged next to a pile of grass cut for cattle feed, talking about his unhappy life.
Like Ah Nge Kaung, (Ko) Ye Win (name changed), who escaped from joining the military in compulsory, was not only unhappy in Mae Sot but tired of it. He lives in a shabby room where he is paid Baht 500 per month just for a bed, and his future is in darkness.
Maupin Township, Irrawaddy Region, which is weak in the PDF’s movement, is likely to be forced to join military service by the junta. Five days after the military service law was announced, he abandoned his normal life as a company employee and threw himself into Mae Sot, where only darkness exists.
“When I stepped on Mae Sot land, I was happy because I was free from the military dogs (Myanmar’s military). About a week after I arrived at Mae Sot, I started thinking about what I would make a living with and how I would stand in the long run,” he said.
Ye Win had never worked as a laborer until he was 24 years old. He was a company employee, and he did not know how to place his future in Mae Sot, where only laborers on daily wages were employed. Currently, he can have two meals per day and a bed due to an activist exiled brother and some savings. He said that the future is something that is too far away for him, and it is hard to even think about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.
“There are no factory jobs here, so I can’t do manual labor. The only way is to get a legal card and go to Bangkok to find a job,” he told of his misty dream.
After February 10th, when the law on illegal military service came into force, many young people who did not want to join the PDF army, could not fly overseas to study abroad, and who already had friends in Mae Sot needed to quickly flee to Mae Sot because the most important thing for them was not to join the military – assuming that one day at a time.
Ko Nai, a political activist who has been in Mae Sot for a long time, said that more than 99 percent of those who came to Mae Sot came with their own plans, and those who stood by their own plans.
“Many of them come here because they have friends. For them, the help is to stand up for yourself and rely on yourself; this is typical in Maesot,” Ko Nai said.
(Ko) Phoe Thingyan, secretary of the Overseas Irrawaddy Association (OIA), which helps political refugees in Maesot, said that a family and 18 youths (male and female) who recently fled to Mae Sot due to the military service law have been kept in a safe house of the OIA, and that more than 300 people who are still in the country have contacted the OIA.
“We are currently helping one family and 18 young men and women in a safe house, and we have provided them with food. We cannot provide them with a legal residence card. However, we have provided them with a police card that makes it convenient for them to go around within Maesot,” Phoe Thingyan said.
Ye Win, who has been living in a shabby room for 500 baht a month, said that he has contacted an organization that provides a safe house in Maesot for help for about a month and has not yet received a reply.
(Ko) Thu Zaw, who arrived in Mae Sot on February 14 to oppose the military service law, said, “Since I first arrived until today (March 13), I have not received any help from any organization, and I don’t know where or how to contact them.”
Thu Zaw, who is 30 years old, had been working at a food and beverage company in Yangon for a long time and said that his dream of becoming a food and beverage entrepreneur was destroyed by the conscription law.
After the conscription law came out, Thu Zaw went out to Mae Sot, where he already had friends, in consultation with his family because he did not want to be in a situation where he would have to fight with each other if he joined the army.
“Since I had arrived here, I started over everything again. My degrees and certificates can’t be used here anymore. Everything I had done in advance on the other side (Myanmar) is no longer useful here. Everything I hoped for has been destroyed,” he continued.
Thu Zaw, who quickly realized the meaning of Mae Sot, soon after arriving in Mae Sot, folded his degree and decisively took a job as a daily fruit peeler at a fruit warehouse. It’s a job that he never even dreamed of, so he didn’t have the skills in the beginning, and he couldn’t even earn 100 baht a day. Now, it’s more than 200 baht a day. However, he earns more than 200 baht if he works from 7 am. to 10 pm.
It’s the life of a fruit peeler; he only earns more than 200 baht – working from the morning until the end of the night. It is normal that labor rights are not for illegal refugees. It can say luck lives just having a little safety without being arrested or jailed.
Some of the young people were unlucky, and once they stepped on the land of Thailand after crossing the Thaungyin River, they were arrested by Thai authorities. They did not even reach Mae Sot. In about a month after the military service law came out, around 600 people have been arrested for illegally entering Thailand, and most of the arrests are made on the Kachanaburi and Mae Sot sides of the Thai-Myanmar border, Chairman of the Joint Action Committee for Myanmar Migrant Workers Affairs, (U) Moe Kyoe, told the BBC.
(U) Nay Phone Latt Lat said, “After the terrorist military group tried to recruit soldiers forcibly, we, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (under the National Unity Government), have sent letters to the governments of our respective neighboring countries that families and youths may be fleeing. We have sent letters pleading with them to handle these kinds of issues with humanitarianism. This is not just in Thailand. We have sent letters to all neighboring countries.”
According to the request of the NUG, it is not yet known how the Thai government will handle it, but it is certain that around 600 people from Myanmar have arrived in Thai prisons due to the conscription law. How many young people have arrived in Mae Sot? There are no exact statistics.
“In order to help the young people who have arrived now, we need to have an approximate list of how many young people are here. Let alone having such a list, NUG doesn’t seem to know that it needs to make that one,” said an NLD member of parliament based in Mae Sot who did not want to be named.
His estimate is that the number of young people who came to Maesot is under a thousand. When asked five political activists who have lived for years in Maesot, one said that there were more than 500, and the other four estimated that there were more than 1,000.
Ko Nai, a political activist, said, “New people are still coming a lot. There are no exact statistics! Based on what I have seen and heard, I estimate that there are more than 1,000 young people who came to Maesot because they did not want to join the military.”
The National Unity Government (NUG) stated in a statement on February 13 that it will cooperate with allied organizations to provide the necessary protection and support to reduce the dangers faced by the people due to the illegal implementation of this conspiration law, but it has not been heard that the youths who were arrested by the Thai authorities while illegally entering Thailand have received any assistance.
Some political activists in Mae Sot unanimously say that they have not heard that the Mae Sot-based NUG circle has given aid to young people in Mae Sot.
“I want to answer: how should NUG help those who fled abroad like Mae Sot? It must first review its own strengths. They must first review their own people, finances, and ability to do so. Then it must tell its allies who will work together and discuss the needs. They must also talk to the Thai government. Based on the results of these discussions, they should start implementing what they can do. There are many things they should do. Let’s say as much as they can and start doing it. Gradually expand them. This will be effective,” political columnist Sayar Naung Bo suggested.
Continuing, Sayar Naung Bo also said that the NUG only makes statements and is weak in practical implementation.
“In my opinion, they (the NUG) are weak in properly planning who and what they will implement. So they just issued a letter. There is no one who will implement it on the ground. This comes from my personal experience. They can’t just work for show. They still don’t understand this. I don’t know whether they are reluctant to give responsibility to others. What they issue letters and what they implement on the ground are quite different,” said Sayar Naung Bo.
Prime Minister’s Office Spokesperson Nay Phone Latt said that since the NUG is a revolutionary government, it is difficult to take full responsibility for the young people who have migrated to other countries, but they will find a way to help the young people who have migrated to Maesot by connecting with community-based organizations.
Regarding the military junta’s plan to force people to serve in the military, 41 revolutionary organizations issued a joint statement on March 5, saying that they would oppose the junta’s oppression and help those who want to live as civilians to move to areas away from the military junta’s danger as much as they could.
Regarding this statement, (Daw) Hnin Hnin Hmwe, the spokesperson of the General Strike Committee (GSC), said, “It was released with the consideration that we need to provide assistance to those who do not want to serve in the military as much as possible. The detailed plans are still being discussed and negotiated.”
The military junta’s illegal provision of military service law shocked the entire country. Many young people bravely joined the PDF forces, took refuge as civilians in revolutionary areas, and fled to other countries. They opposed the military junta in these ways.
Regarding the military junta that promulgated the conscription law, Ms. Yang Hee Lee, a member of the Special Advisory Council for Myanmar (SAC-M), remarked, “Rather than accepting the fall of the coup, it shows that it is willing to destroy the entire youth generation.”
Enacting the conscription law and implementing it is a huge violation of human rights for the whole country. Myanmar’s youths have thrown away all the lives they have built and are jumping to the arenas paved with various troubles, but the international community is still ignoring them, and there is still no effective support from local organizations.
However, like Ms. Yang Hee Lee said, the military junta intended to destroy the entire youth generation, but the youth generation is not dead and is still raising its own flag in its own way.
Thu Zaw, who went from a food and beverage company employee to a day laborer, said, “I can’t go back to Myanmar right now, so the future is in haze. But I can’t afford it. I’ll do what I can. I’ll donate surplus money to the revolution. If the revolution is quickly over, I can go home quickly. This is like my future,” he said, clenching his fists and his teeth.