By Ma Ma - Apr 07, 2024

Although the International Organization for Migration (IOM) and the Ministry of Labor are working on migrant workers affairs, they are still being exploited and scammed, Myanmar workers who are going to work abroad said.

The number of people who want to work abroad increase after the coup d'état, and it is reported that not only brokers but also licensed agencies are taking advantage of this situation to exploit and scam.

“People just want to go to abroad. They don’t even care the service fees. Agencies said they too have to paid to departments. We only want to go to abroad and we are worried when we heard that news that others people are scammed,” said a person who want to go to abroad.

The Union Minister of Labor held a meeting with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on March 1.

Minister discussed services and plans to cooperate to protect the workers, provide information services to promote safe and orderly regular migration, promote and protect the interests of workers and their families according to the press release of IOM.

"The Federation of Agencies worked together with labor organizations to solve problems before the coup. Now they can't do as much as before and brokers are also licensed. The amount of money scammed also increase," said an agency worker.

Currently, there are more than 500 agencies licensed to send foreign workers, according to the ministry. The number of people obtaining licenses to send foreign workers has almost doubled from before the seizure of power, but the ministry doesn’t has strict discipline. In addition, due to the repression of the junta after the coup, it is reported that organizations dealing with labor issues are no longer able to effectively provide information about going to work abroad and help solve fraud.

Photo- ILO/Chalinee Thirasupa (Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand)