Thailand must prepare for a possible influx of Myanmar’s young people

[webfact]

People gather outside the embassy of Thailand to get visas in Yangon on February 16 after Myanmar’s military government said it would impose military service.//AFP

The State Administration Council’s (SAC) plans to draft more soldiers to fight the resistance forces poses serious challenges for Thailand’s volatile and porous border. Myanmar’s People Military Service Law, enacted in 2010 but activated on February 13, obligates men and women, aged 18 to 45 and 18 to 35 respectively, to be drafted into the military for two years of compulsory service.

 

Furthermore, Individuals with specialized knowledge such as doctors and engineers must serve three years. In the case of a national emergency, the time to be served could be extended to five years.

 

The new draft shows the military regime is desperate to add more fighters as they have suffered great losses over the past five months of intense fighting between the Tatmadaw and alliances of ethnic armed groups and other resistance forces.

 

Right after the announcement, a long queue formed at the Thai Embassy in Yangon as young men and women applied for visas to Thailand. Both daily quotas via the offline and online visa applications are still being quickly filled. Myanmar passport holders can enter Thailand with a visa waiver via international check-in counters for two weeks.

 

by Kavi Chongkittavorn

 

Full story: Thai PBS 2024-03-12

 

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[flyingtlger]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

enacted in 2010 but activated on February 13, obligates men and women, aged 18 to 45 and 18 to 35 respectively, to be drafted into the military for two years of compulsory service.

Conscription up to 45 for males and 35 for women? Especially if they don't believe their government is doing the right thing.

Can't blame them for wanting to skip town....

[redwood1]

18 to 25 would be normal....Conscription up to 45 for males......Thats just plain weird.......

[herfiehandbag]

1 hour ago, webfact said:

The new draft shows the military regime is desperate to add more fighters as they have suffered great losses over the past five months of intense fighting between the Tatmadaw and alliances of ethnic armed groups and other resistance forces.

I doubt whether the Tatmadaw could find enough boots to give them, let alone weapons, training, leaders to command them, transport and so on.

 

They would, will, end up with a "levee en masse", reluctant, untrained, unequipped. Totally useless in military terms. 

 

Rather like the proposed massive extension to conscription the then Thai Junta wanted back a few years.

 

The reality is the Tatmadaw only control the territory for a few hundred yards beyond their own barbed wire, and then only in daylight. Every bullet, every mortar bomb, every radio battery has to be supplied down roads vulnerable to ambush. The rebels now have man portable ground to air missiles, which removes the Tatmadaws strongest card, their air force, ground attack aircraft and, especially, helicopters.

[mikebell]

'Thailand must prepare for a possible influx of Myanmar’s young people' - too late.  I visited Koh Samui over a year ago and every other waiter in every restaurant was from Myanmar.  The good effect is it will challenge the Thais to improve their levels of English.

[norfolkandchance]

There are now over a thousand plus youngsters from Myanmar accommodated in our Government Housing Village who work in the attached garment factory, Day/Night shift.

Complaints from the Thai residents regarding noise, drinking and drugs has led to restrictions being Implemented. One being the removal of foot volley courts from recreational areas and placed outside of the village.

 

[bamnutsak]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The State Administration Council’s (SAC) plans to draft more soldiers

 

Hmmm?

 

Maybe just reassign all the conscripted house-boys from the General's homes to active duty?

 

So much for Military reforms, and the end of conscription.

 

 

 

[Hamus Yaigh]

I'm sure Thailand can afford the influx they helped create by supporting the murderous junta to plunder that nations natural resources so many years.

[tomazbodner]

Yes, arm the people who hate you and teach them how to use those weapons against you

[Tropicalevo]

5 hours ago, redwood1 said:

18 to 25 would be normal....Conscription up to 45 for males......Thats just plain weird.......

Desperate people do desperate things.

[Tropicalevo]

5 hours ago, mikebell said:

I visited Koh Samui over a year ago and every other waiter in every restaurant was from Myanmar. 

Ah. You must have been in the posh restaurants on Samui.

All Thai staff where I tend to eat.

Now KPN is a different story.  All Burmese staff in every restaurant and bar that I went to.

[Sydebolle]

As I cannot find staff for my upmarket restaurant with salaries between 18K-30K per month I am more than happy to welcome any other nationality, race or religion willing to work; presently I am short of ten positions and the Thais seem to be too lazy to work for money these days - me thinks 😉

[Cabradelmar]

To come and never leave... Beware the law of unintended consequences. 

[tomazbodner]

What? No special visa and direct flights to Phuket?

[huangnon]

4 hours ago, tomazbodner said:

Yes, arm the people who hate you and teach them how to use those weapons against you

 

I watched a documentary recently that stated a lot of those conscripts are drafted into military and secret police duties. Basically spying on their neighbors.

[Guderian]

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Right after the announcement, a long queue formed at the Thai Embassy in Yangon as young men and women applied for visas to Thailand. Both daily quotas via the offline and online visa applications are still being quickly filled. Myanmar passport holders can enter Thailand with a visa waiver via international check-in counters for two weeks.

 

 

A few days ago there was a doom and gloom article saying that the Thai population will halve in the next 60 years. I should have thought that this would be great news, especially as both racially and religiously there's a great deal of similarity between the mainstream Thais and the Bamars.

[heybruce]

A Burmese friend told me that the Shan State Army has started aggressively drafting young people, especially those with prior military experience.  According to The Diplomat it isn't just Shan State. 

 

"Since the offensive, a number of accusations have been made against the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), the ethnic Kokang EAO spearheading attacks in northern Shan State. The group has been documented of dragging away men from refugee camps and fleeing convoys, and demanding manpower quotas from various local communities."  https://thediplomat.com/2024/01/myanmar-ethnic-armed-groups-draw-allegations-of-forced-recruitment/

 

The article makes it clear that the Tatmadaw is also employing desperate measures at "recruiting".  I don't know where that country is heading, but it doesn't look good.

[hotchilli]

Thailand needs workers, especially cheap labour.

Thais want to go overseas so they can pay off family debts, Myanmarese want to cross the border to escape a military conflict... welcome them with open arms, bless their children and give them citizen ship, boosting your population decline.

[digger70]

8 hours ago, redwood1 said:

Conscription

This is supposed to be for Young people, 18/22 Get them to Learn/Teach them about Some discipline  Work and learning some trade/work be that Truck driving/Machine operating/Office work /Cooks/Carpenter/Mechanic/Tank driver /Pilot. or what ever they can do. ETC

That's what  was in Europe when I grew up.

[Burma Bill]

4 hours ago, huangnon said:

 

I watched a documentary recently that stated a lot of those conscripts are drafted into military and secret police duties. Basically spying on their neighbors.

 

Yes indeed, spying on your neighbour is one of the Tatmadaws evil methods However, swift retribution is handed out when these spy agents are identified

 

Six people including a child were killed by a local resistance force in the town of Saw in central Myanmar’s Magway Region on Sunday night, relatives and locals told Myanmar Now.

A group of at least 13 gunmen arrived at the house of 60-year-old Khin Maung Lin, the accused junta informant, at around 8pm. 

 

https://myanmar-now.org/en/news/alleged-junta-informant-killed-alongside-family/

[norfolkandchance]

12 hours ago, norfolkandchance said:

There are now over a thousand plus youngsters from Myanmar accommodated in our Government Housing Village who work in the attached garment factory, Day/Night shift.

Complaints from the Thai residents regarding noise, drinking and drugs has led to restrictions being Implemented. One being the removal of foot volley courts from recreational areas and placed outside of the village.

 

Who  are these tossers putting putting up a Confused emoji.