Myanmar junta expands mandatory remittance for migrant workers

 Read RFA coverage of this topic in Burmese.

Myanmar workers in Laos must remit a quarter of their salary back home, the junta’s minister of labor said, the latest cohort of migrant workers forced to exchange earnings at an artificially low rate as the military struggles to acquire foreign currency.

The Ministry of Labor has already implemented increasingly strict measures on migrant workers in neighboring Thailand to pay taxes, remit part of their salary at an artificially low exchange rate through junta-owned banks and pay additional fees to receive vital documentation. 

On Tuesday, Minister of Labor Myint Naung met Myanmar factory workers in Vientiane to tell them remittances needed to be submitted through “official channels,” his ministry said in a statement.

Myanmar’s economy has been in freefall since the generals ousted an elected government in early 2021, bringing tentative political reforms and economic growth to a halt and ushering in bloody turmoil.

Foreign investment has dropped precipitously in the three and a half years since the coup while overall, the economy has contracted by nearly 20%, according to the World Bank. Myanmar’s 2024 gross domestic product growth estimates have been halved to 1%, in large part due to widespread conflict and junta mismanagement.

Desperate for foreign exchange, the junta has increasingly turned to tapping its many migrant workers.

In Laos, where hundreds of thousands of Myanmar workers are believed to be employed in services, agriculture and manufacturing, workers fretted about how much of their money would be left after the new deduction through official junta channels, in addition to a 2% tax they are required to pay the Myanmar embassy.

“For basic workers like us, it’s not OK at all,” said one worker who declined to be identified for safety reasons.

“We’re only getting 80 yuan (US$11) a day and then we have to subtract the cost of food. After that, we have to transfer our salary through a broker,” said the worker at a factory where wages are paid in the Chinese currency. 

Myint Naing, in a speech outside of the Alpilao International Sole Limited garment factory, said workers could make the transfer once a month, or for up to three months at a time.

“Whether it’s using official banking systems, through the Central Bank of Myanmar from someone who has a Remittance Business License, or it’s an international money transfer service linked through a bank system, you must transfer the money to your family,” he said.

But the worker said the exchange rate the junta set was crippling.

“It’s so low. After sending it through the places they say we have to use to transfer, what’s left isn’t enough for our families,” he said.

The civilian shadow National Unity Government, or NUG, that was set up after the coup by members of the ousted civilian administration, has denounced the junta’s rules for migrant workers as a systematic violation of their rights. 

“Both the military and its finances are in crisis,” the NUG’s vice labor minister, Kyaw Ni, said in a statement.

“As the military’s failures increase, they need to replenish with money from people. So they’re turning to workers in Laos.” 

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Translated by Kiana Duncan. Edited by RFA Staff.