By Min Ni Kyaw - Mar 20, 2025

I used to work at a garment factory in China. I just want to share what she went through.

The factory I worked at was located in the Fati Industrial Zone, Manxi, Dehong Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China. The factory is called 德宏佳林 (Dehong Jialin), and I worked there as a garment worker. (There was no factory name signboard, only written on the uniforms.)

I’m sharing this so other won’t have to go through the same. If possible, please avoid working at garment factories in China. Not every factory or employer is the same, but I just don’t want others to face the same horrible experiences.

This factory was opened in August last year, so it’s not even one year old. Around 200 Myanmar workers are employed there. All types of work in the factory are done by Myanmar workers only.

Workers have to meet an hourly production quota. There’s no separate staff assigned for cleaning. We ourselves have to clean the sewing tables every hour in our own lines. Ee’re fined if we miss cleaning or fail to organize things properly because we’re too busy or stuck at the machine. The fines are deducted in Chinese currency.

Although the factory claims to provide meals, they are not suitable for us. It’s not about taste — it’s the overall conditions, utensils, and cleanliness that make it unsuitable for Myanmar workers.

The work continues until 9:30 p.m. every night. We can only go home if we meet the production target. If not, we have to keep working. We don’t get any extra pay and if we work overtime to meet the target.

I was recruited directly by the factory — not through a broker. The woman who helped recruit me even left the factory before I did and returned to Myanmar, probably because she couldn’t bear it either. I never imagined I’d face what she did. I was really trying to adapt to the factory.

A family emergency occurred at home in Myanmar while I was working there. So, I requested to leave the factory.

But the factory refused to let me return home. The factory demanded 30,000 yuan from me when I said I wanted to return to Myanmar — calling it "compensation."

They told me I couldn’t leave even for family reasons. So, what kind of situation would they consider acceptable to allow someone to leave? Do I have to work there for life?

I pleaded repeatedly with the factory to let me go.

The factory deducts salary if we take a leave. I’ve even seen a fellow worker who lost her entire salary for missing about 20 days due to illness.

There was no contract when we are hired. They told us we could return home after repaying any debt. Later, the factory withheld one month’s wages as a deposit — and we only received it at the end of the second month.

I only owed about 1,000 yuan when I submitted my resignation. I was expecting to get around 2,000 yuan in wages — not enough to even bring anything back for my family after travel expenses. Still, I wasn’t allowed to leave and had to wait another month. I ended up losing out on my family matter.

By the time I made it back to Yangon, the damage was already done. I went through a lot — more than I can explain necause of the loss in my family and the emotional trauma.

Even now, I still see social media and TikTok videos promoting Chinese garment factory jobs. That’s why I’m writing this — out of fear that others might go through the same thing I did.

Thank you.