‘No happiness’: Misery for Myanmar exiles four years on from coup

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Updated 31 January 2025
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‘No happiness’: Misery for Myanmar exiles four years on from coup

  • The exiles in Thailand are among thousands who fled Myanmar when generals ousted the elected civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1, 2021, and launched a bloody campaign of violent repression against dissent

SAMUT SAKHON, Thailand: Four years after Myanmar’s military seized power in a coup, the country is in the grip of a bloody civil war that has driven many of the country’s young across the border to Thailand.
There they scrape by doing hard jobs for little pay — often living in fear of being arrested and sent back to Myanmar.
AFP met three of them in Mahachai, a district of Samut Sakhon in Bangkok’s western suburbs known as “Little Myanmar” for its population of migrant workers.
They told of their experiences and hopes and fears for the future — speaking under pseudonyms for their own safety and that of their families back in Myanmar.“After the coup, I lost all my dreams,” Ma Phyu told AFP.
Before 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.
After 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.
Resistance has been fierce, led in large part by young people who grew up during Myanmar’s 10-year dalliance with democracy.
Like 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.




This photo taken on January 26, 2025 shows Myanmar migrant workers walking to an outdoor market in Samut Sakhon province. (AFP)

Thailand is home to the world’s largest Myanmar diaspora — 2.3 million registered workers, plus another 1.8 million unofficial migrants, according to the UN migration agency IOM.
Lacking Thai language skills, Myanmar migrants in Thailand are forced into difficult and dirty jobs including construction, food and farm work — often being paid below minimum wage.
Ma 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.
Her husband arrived from Myanmar last year and the couple now live in a single-room apartment in Mahachai.
“I can’t stand the smell of fish any more. I feel disgusted at work and it’s the same at home. Nothing changes, I don’t want to live any more,” Ma Phyu said.
“My previous life was full of happiness. If there had been no coup, there would have been a good life for me.”

In a shabby room in a run-down building in Mahachai, Lwin Lwin practices Japanese grammar with five other Myanmar migrants.




This photo taken on January 26, 2025 shows Myanmar migrant worker “Lwin Lwin” learning Japanese at a makeshift school inside a fellow Myanmar worker’s flat in Samut Sakhon province. (AFP)

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.
“The coup turned my life upside down. I thought I would finish school, go to university and work for the government,” she told AFP.
“But then the coup happened and all my ambitions were swept away.”
Like Ma Phyu, Lwin Lwin works in a fish processing factory in Samut Sakhon and lives in a crowded accommodation block.
“There is no happiness,” she said.
“I never thought I would be working in canned fish factory, but no matter what I feel, sad or happy, I have to work.”

Thura, 25, fled Myanmar after the junta announced in February last year that it would enforce conscription into the military.
Like 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.
“At first I wanted to join a People’s Defense Force and fight for the revolution,” he said, referring to the civilian groups that have taken up arms across the country to oppose the junta’s rule.
“But I have many siblings and I chose to come to Thailand.”
Remittances from workers in Thailand are a vital lifeline for many families in Myanmar, where the civil war has wrecked the economy.
In 2022 nearly one billion dollars were sent from the kingdom, according to the IOM.
Thura is waiting for his “pink card” — an official document allowing him to work in Thailand — and until it arrives he rarely leaves the one-room apartment he shares with his sister.
“We will be traumatized by this military coup till we die,” he said.
“If there were no coup, young people like us would be eating at home with our parents, brothers and sisters.
“Instead we are apart from our families for many years. It’s not good and I feel sad for us.”
 


US condemns Uyghur deportations from Thailand to China

Updated 28 February 2025
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US condemns Uyghur deportations from Thailand to China

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Thursday strongly condemned ally Thailand for deporting dozens of Uyghurs back to China, where he said the mostly Muslim minority faced “genocide.”
“We condemn in the strongest possible terms Thailand’s forced return of at least 40 Uyghurs to China, where they lack due process rights and where Uyghurs have faced persecution, forced labor and torture,” Rubio said in a statement.


Italian Jews call for end to ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Palestinian territories

Updated 28 February 2025
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Italian Jews call for end to ‘ethnic cleansing’ in Palestinian territories

ROME: More than 200 Italian Jews have signed an appeal against “ethnic cleansing” in the Palestinian territories, provoking strong media reaction and dividing the country’s Jewish community.
Writers, academics, philosophers and journalists were among the 220 signatories of the text, which was published in daily newspapers La Repubblica and Il Manifesto.
It claimed that US President Donald Trump “wants to expel Palestinians from Gaza. Meanwhile in the West Bank the violence of the Israeli government and settlers continues.”
“Italian Jews say no to ethnic cleansing. Italy must not be an accomplice,” they added.
The call aims to “bring out a clear and strong Jewish voice of disapproval,” said the Jewish Antiracist Laboratory, a group of young Jewish-origin Italians which is behind the petition.
The organization said it was “opposed to the annexation of Palestinian territories by Israel and all forms of anti-Semitism.”
The head of the Jewish community in Rome, Victor Fadlun, criticized what he said was a “dishonorable” initiative at a time when Israel was holding the funerals of three former hostages.
Shiri, Kfir and Ariel Bibas were kidnapped in Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and were killed in captivity in Gaza.
Fadlum’s predecessor, Riccardo Pacifici, said the petition risked “stirring up anti-Jewish hatred,” according to comments published in Il Corriere della Sera.
One of the newspaper’s journalists, Federico Fubini, signed the appeal and wrote on X that he was “against ethnic cleansing in Gaza and oppression in the West Bank.”
Both were “very close to my heart,” he added. “But in no way does this endorse Hamas, obviously, nor the many forms of explicit, insidious and hypocritical anti-Semitism that we see everywhere, including in Italy.”


Ethiopia, Somalia reaffirm ties after diplomatic row

Updated 27 February 2025
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Ethiopia, Somalia reaffirm ties after diplomatic row

MOGADISHU: Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed visited Somalia on Thursday and met with its President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud to reinforce their fragile reconciliation after a row over ties to a separatist region.
They discussed topics “including peace and security, economy, diplomacy and potential to build joint infrastructure,” Ahmed said in a message on X afterwards.
The Somali government said in a statement ahead of the meeting that they would also discuss “the fight against terrorism in the region.”
Residents reported mortar attacks in areas near Mogadishu airport shortly after the visiting delegation passed through it en route to the presidential palace.
It was unclear whether the attacks were linked to Abiy’s arrival.
Security officials at the airport said Abiy’s delegation safely left the airport without incident.
Somalia’s security situation is highly volatile, with the Islamist Al-Shabab group maintaining a presence in the country.
“Two rounds of mortar shells landed in Bulohubey neighborhood. An elderly woman was wounded after the shell exploded close to her house,” local resident Abdiraham Hassan told AFP.
A member of Ethiopia’s delegation told AFP they had not been aware of any mortar attacks.
Tension between the two countries mounted last year after Ethiopia struck a deal with the Somali breakaway region of Somaliland to gain access to the sea.
But they announced a full restoration of diplomatic ties in January following a deal mediated by Turkiye.
The two countries said in a joint statement that Thursday’s visit “reinforces the normalization of bilateral nations.”
Abiy said in his post after the meeting: “Regional thinking and collaboration are essential, and we are ready to work with Somalia to make this a reality.”
A source in the Somali presidential palace told AFP on Wednesday, on condition of anonymity, that Abiy’s visit was “part of a broader effort to complete and implement the Ankara agreement,” referring to the deal struck in the Turkish capital in December.
Somaliland said its January 2024 deal with Ethiopia would have led to Addis Ababa recognizing its independence — though that was never confirmed — in exchange for a long-desired naval base for the land-locked nation.
Mogadishu was furious over the deal and withdrew its ambassador from Ethiopia.
Following the rapprochement, the fate of Ethiopia’s deal with Somaliland remains uncertain.


8 killed in Philippine fire that gutted a residential building in less than an hour

Updated 27 February 2025
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8 killed in Philippine fire that gutted a residential building in less than an hour

MANILA: Eight people were killed in a nighttime fire in the Philippine capital region that gutted a three-story residential building early Thursday in less than an hour, officials said.

The fire, which also injured at least one resident, broke out after midnight in the building, which was mostly made of wood, as people slept in San Isidro Galas village in suburban Quezon city, officials said.

An investigation was underway to determine the cause of the fire.

Two of the dead were found on the ground floor and six others were recovered on the second floor, where the fire apparently started, senior fire officer Rolando Valeña told The Associated Press, citing witnesses.

The blaze happened just two days before the Philippines marks fire-prevention month in March, when the government launches an annual campaign to raise awareness about fire hazards ahead of the onset of the scorching summer season.

Many deadly fires in the Philippines have been blamed on poor enforcement of safety regulations, overcrowding and faulty building designs.

A 1996 disco fire in Quezon city killed 162 people, mostly students celebrating the end of the school year, in one of the deadliest nightclub fires in the world in recent decades. 

They were unable to escape because the emergency exit was blocked by a new building next door.


France threatens to review longstanding accords with Algeria

Updated 27 February 2025
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France threatens to review longstanding accords with Algeria

  • The threat to cancel the agreement with Algeria on free movement came after a deadly knife attack in which the main suspect is a man of Algerian origin

PARIS: French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou threatened  to cancel a longstanding agreement with Algeria on free movement after a deadly knife attack in which the main suspect is a man of Algerian origin.

The row is just the latest in a series of disputes that has heightened tension between France and its former colony.

Bayrou spoke following a Cabinet meeting held days after Saturday’s knife attack in Mulhouse in which one person was killed and several others wounded.

Prosecutors say the 37-year-old suspect is an Algerian-born man who was on a terrorism watchlist and subject to deportation orders.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has said that France had repeatedly attempted to expel him, but Algeria refused to accept him.

Bayrou said Wednesday: “The victims we saw in Mulhouse this weekend are the direct victims of the refusal to apply these agreements” between the two countries.

The suspect had been presented to the Algerian authorities 14 times and on each occasion they had refused to take him back, he added.

Under the 1968 accords between the two countries, Algerians enjoy favorable treatment on immigration matters in France.

But Algeria has in recent months refused on several occasions to accept its citizens when France has expelled them.

Bayrou said France would ask Algiers to examine how the relevant agreements between the two countries were being applied, giving them a month to six weeks to comply.

If there was no response, then canceling the existing agreements would “be the only possible outcome,” he added — even though “this is not the one we want.”

On Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot announced travel restrictions on Algerian dignitaries.

On Wednesday, Barrot said those measures, involving several hundred people, had been in place for several weeks.

Algiers has denounced the new measures as a “provocation.”

This new dispute is just the latest in a series between two countries feeding the tension between Paris and Algiers.