Thailand in the big business of housing draft dodgers. Which is good that the people are doing this but idk how this affects the Thai people and economy.
Thai PM has warned Burmese over illegal entry as per this post here. Historically, Thailand is where Burmese exiles have always escaped to during political strife. During British occupation of Burma, hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees lived in Thailand and formed a guerilla army that successfully participated in the liberation of Burma. Soon after independence different political and ethnic factions within the Burmese army that was created from merging the Burmese guerilla army with the British-trained colonial army mutinied into a civil war, refugees have streamed into Thailand on an annual basis. UN and international humanitarian agencies have long operated on the Thai-Burmese border for decades providing economic boost in those marginal regions to Thailand. Finally Thailand has <1% unemployment and has long welcomed and recruited Burmese expat workers currently estimated to be around 4 million, half of them believed to be illegal. This additional influx is a somewhat of a welcome boost.
Helped a friend flee Myanmar the day the news hit.
He was lucky he had a passport so he could immediately start the visa process. The next day there were queues in front of the Thai embasseys and consulates of thousands of people. Thai officials announced they’d only process 400 requests a day.
when my friend finally arrived in Thailand, immigration took all the Burmese nationals aside for hightened scruteny. It took him more than 4 hours of being detained and questioned. I suspect they wanted a bribe (they used all kinds of bullshit reasons to send hin back, like "1000 usd is insufficient amount of cash to havr with you, 1000 usd is not Thai Bhat, return ticket is fake (it was not)).
they eventually let him pass because we made noise through our Thai connections. The rest of the Burmese nationals who were detained were likely sent back.
Thailand in the big business of housing draft dodgers. Which is good that the people are doing this but idk how this affects the Thai people and economy.
Thai PM has warned Burmese over illegal entry as per this post here. Historically, Thailand is where Burmese exiles have always escaped to during political strife. During British occupation of Burma, hundreds of thousands of Burmese refugees lived in Thailand and formed a guerilla army that successfully participated in the liberation of Burma. Soon after independence different political and ethnic factions within the Burmese army that was created from merging the Burmese guerilla army with the British-trained colonial army mutinied into a civil war, refugees have streamed into Thailand on an annual basis. UN and international humanitarian agencies have long operated on the Thai-Burmese border for decades providing economic boost in those marginal regions to Thailand. Finally Thailand has <1% unemployment and has long welcomed and recruited Burmese expat workers currently estimated to be around 4 million, half of them believed to be illegal. This additional influx is a somewhat of a welcome boost.
I’d heard the opposite, genuinely don’t know what the situation is since I’m nowhere near it
Agreed
Seems like any plausible difficulties that could result are really unimportant given the context of what these people are fleeing.
Helped a friend flee Myanmar the day the news hit.
He was lucky he had a passport so he could immediately start the visa process. The next day there were queues in front of the Thai embasseys and consulates of thousands of people. Thai officials announced they’d only process 400 requests a day.
when my friend finally arrived in Thailand, immigration took all the Burmese nationals aside for hightened scruteny. It took him more than 4 hours of being detained and questioned. I suspect they wanted a bribe (they used all kinds of bullshit reasons to send hin back, like "1000 usd is insufficient amount of cash to havr with you, 1000 usd is not Thai Bhat, return ticket is fake (it was not)).
they eventually let him pass because we made noise through our Thai connections. The rest of the Burmese nationals who were detained were likely sent back.