More internally displaced people (IDPs) in Arakan State are leaving displacement camps to seek jobs abroad as conditions at the camps have deteriorated and inhabitants view their futures in increasingly grim terms if they remain.
Dozens of young and middle-aged men and women are leaving the camps every month to work in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore, according to IDPs.
As home returns look unlikely in the near term due to escalating military tensions between the Myanmar regime and the Arakan Army, and food and other relief supplies to IDP camps have severely dwindled, more people are seeking work abroad, said U Than Hlaing from the Kavi Yadana displacement camp in Kyauktaw.
“IDPs can’t return to their homes, and they feel like there is no future for them here. So, many have left to find overseas jobs,” he said.
More than 10 IDPs left the Kavi Yadana camp in June and July, he said. Around 40 IDPs left a displacement camp opened at a train station in Kyauktaw over the same period, an IDP from the camp said on condition of anonymity.
“Some could successfully find jobs in foreign countries. Some were detained and deported. People are desperate for jobs to make a living, so they have left,” he said.
Over 20 IDPs have left the Shwe Paramai displacement camp in Rathedaung since early this year, said Daw Hla Hla Hsan of Ma Nyin Taung village.
“We can’t return to our villages, but we have no jobs here, and we can expect only more troubles in the future staying here. We are already eking out an existence here since we were displaced some three years ago,” she said.
Apart from food shortages and a decline in the provision of humanitarian aid, instability is another factor that drives IDPs to seek jobs overseas, said former Lower House lawmaker U Oo Tun Win. The risk of landmines and unexploded ordnance pose a grave threat to IDPs who have been forced to forage for vegetables in surrounding forests due to the decline provisions of relief supplies to them.
Some IDP camps in Arakan State are not receiving rice supplies previously provided by the regime-controlled disaster management department. The last time they received rice supplies was some two months ago, said camp managers.
At the height of the conflict between the Arakan Army and Myanmar military, more than 200,000 civilians were displaced by the fighting, which lasted from late 2018 to November 2020. Many have returned to their homes since clashes ceased toward the end of 2020, but tens of thousands of IDPs remain in displacement camps.
Owing to Arakan State’s status as Myanmar’s second poorest state, generations of economically disadvantaged workers have sought employment abroad, a trend accelerated by the rising cost of goods and lack of job opportunities in their home state.
