SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand: Four years after Myanmar\u2019s military seized power in a coup, the country is in the grip of a bloody civil war that has driven many of the country\u2019s young across the border to Thailand.
\nThere they scrape by doing hard jobs for little pay \u2014 often living in fear of being arrested and sent back to Myanmar.
\nAFP met three of them in Mahachai, a district of Samut Sakhon in Bangkok\u2019s western suburbs known as \u201cLittle Myanmar\u201d for its population of migrant workers.
\nThey told of their experiences and hopes and fears for the future \u2014 speaking under pseudonyms for their own safety and that of their families back in Myanmar.\u201cAfter the coup, I lost all my dreams,\u201d Ma Phyu told AFP.
\nBefore the military seized power, the 28-year-old was teaching young children while studying at university in Yangon with the aim of qualifying as a teacher.
\nAfter the February 1, 2021 coup, which ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the generals launched a bloody campaign of violent repression against dissent.
\nResistance has been fierce, led in large part by young people who grew up during Myanmar\u2019s 10-year dalliance with democracy.
\nLike thousands of others, Ma Phyu chose to flee Myanmar rather than live under the junta, and now cannot return for fear of retribution from the authorities.<\/p>\n
Thailand is home to the world\u2019s largest Myanmar diaspora \u2014 2.3 million registered workers, plus another 1.8 million unofficial migrants, according to the UN migration agency IOM.
\nLacking Thai language skills, Myanmar migrants in Thailand are forced into difficult and dirty jobs including construction, food and farm work \u2014 often being paid below minimum wage.
\nMa Phyu now works from 5:30 p.m. to 3:00 am in a fish processing plant, six days a week, regularly scolded by her supervisors for not understanding instructions in Thai.
\nHer husband arrived from Myanmar last year and the couple now live in a single-room apartment in Mahachai.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t stand the smell of fish any more. I feel disgusted at work and it\u2019s the same at home. Nothing changes, I don\u2019t want to live any more,\u201d Ma Phyu said.
\n\u201cMy previous life was full of happiness. If there had been no coup, there would have been a good life for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a shabby room in a run-down building in Mahachai, Lwin Lwin practices Japanese grammar with five other Myanmar migrants.<\/p>\n
The 21-year-old, who fled Myanmar without finishing high school, hopes learning the language will give her a way out of a tough existence in Thailand.
\n\u201cThe coup turned my life upside down. I thought I would finish school, go to university and work for the government,\u201d she told AFP.
\n\u201cBut then the coup happened and all my ambitions were swept away.\u201d
\nLike Ma Phyu, Lwin Lwin works in a fish processing factory in Samut Sakhon and lives in a crowded accommodation block.
\n\u201cThere is no happiness,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cI never thought I would be working in canned fish factory, but no matter what I feel, sad or happy, I have to work.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thura, 25, fled Myanmar after the junta announced in February last year that it would enforce conscription into the military.
\nLike thousands of others, Thura chose to escape to Thailand rather than fight for a regime he did not believe in, abandoning his dream of running his own garage.
\n\u201cAt first I wanted to join a People\u2019s Defense Force and fight for the revolution,\u201d he said, referring to the civilian groups that have taken up arms across the country to oppose the junta\u2019s rule.
\n\u201cBut I have many siblings and I chose to come to Thailand.\u201d
\nRemittances from workers in Thailand are a vital lifeline for many families in Myanmar, where the civil war has wrecked the economy.
\nIn 2022 nearly one billion dollars were sent from the kingdom, according to the IOM.
\nThura is waiting for his \u201cpink card\u201d \u2014 an official document allowing him to work in Thailand \u2014 and until it arrives he rarely leaves the one-room apartment he shares with his sister.
\n\u201cWe will be traumatized by this military coup till we die,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIf there were no coup, young people like us would be eating at home with our parents, brothers and sisters.
\n\u201cInstead we are apart from our families for many years. It\u2019s not good and I feel sad for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand: Four years after Myanmar\u2019s military seized power in a coup, the country is in the grip of a bloody civil war that has driven many of the country\u2019s young across the border to Thailand. There they scrape by doing hard jobs for little pay \u2014 often living in fear of being arrested …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":76376,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76384,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76359\/revisions\/76384"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}