Irrawaddy-May 30
Thai authorities have arrested over 900 Myanmar people for illegal entry in areas along the Thai-Myanmar border since February, more than half of them youths fleeing the junta’s newly enforced conscription law, according to a rights group assisting Myanmar migrants. The junta’s shock activation of the People’s Military Service Law in February immediately rendered almost all men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 eligible for conscription and triggered a mass exodus of young people to Thailand. Since the second week of February, the number of Myanmar youths entering Thailand illegally has increased sharply, and the number being arrested by Thai police has also surged, said Ko Min Oo of the Foundation for Education and Development (FED), an organization helping migrants in Thailand. “According to our data collected from Feb. 15 to May 27, the number of Myanmar citizens arrested was 918. Over half of those we interviewed said they left Myanmar to avoid the military service law,” he said. FED conducted 31 data-collection sessions in Thailand, interviewing arrested people over a period of three months at the four main Thai checkpoints on the border, in Kanchanaburi, Mae Sot, Prachuap Khiri Khan and Ranong. However, Thailand’s more than 2,400 km-long (more than 1,500-mile) border with Myanmar is dotted with illegal crossing points that can be reached through jungle areas. Ko Min Oo said the actual number of the arrests even at the four main Thai border entry points at which the group collected data could be higher, as some cases were likely missed or beyond the reach of researchers. As a result, the overall number of arrests since February could well be in the thousands, given the long border and the number of places where people are trying to cross the border illegally. Read more at: https://www.irrawaddy.com/news/myanmars-crisis-the-world/illegal-entry-arrests-surge-in-thailand-amid-forced-military-conscription-in-myanmar.html
