Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand who change their Certificate of Identity (CI) to a Passport for Job (PJ) can no longer use the latter document to travel to a third country due to an abrupt rule change by the junta, visa services agencies in Thailand and migrants said Thursday. The change was made without warning or explanation, they said.
The CI is a document issued to Myanmar migrants and formerly undocumented workers proving they are Myanmar citizens. It allows them to register their workplaces and apply for a Thai work visa and work permit. It can be used for travel between Thailand and Myanmar but not to third countries. A PJ can be used both for international travel and to apply for a Thai work visa and work permit.
But on Thursday, the junta’s Ministry of Home Affairs began stamping PJs with “Passport for Thailand Only”, making them valid only in Thailand.
“We learned that they are stamping it on PJs that were recently changed from a CI,” a staff member at a visa services agency in Bangkok told The Irrawaddy.
Those whose PJs have been stamped “Thailand Only” are not able to travel to other countries.
Another agency worker said they did not receive any prior notice from the junta or the Myanmar embassy about the new restrictions.
One person who recently changed their CI to a PJ at the junta’s passport office in Mahachai in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon Province, 30 km from Bangkok, shared on social media a photo of the passport showing a stamp reading “Thailand Only”.
CI holders can travel throughout Thailand but not to other countries, so the stamped PJs are effectively “no different from the CI”, the visa agency worker said.
Another document shared on social media, which appeared to be a Passport for Visit (PV), was also stamped “Travel to Thailand only”.
The tightened passport restrictions have raised concerns among Myanmar migrants in Thailand.
There has been no official statement about the new restrictions from the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok.
When The Irrawaddy tried to reach the embassy for comment on the matter, all the phone numbers it listed were either not in service or unreachable.
A staff member at the passport office in Mahachai said, “Every CI to PJ will be like this. It [a PJ] will be no different from a CI, but it costs more.”
Existing PJ holders will receive the same stamp when they renew their passports, he said.
Since the 2021 coup, Myanmar nationals, especially young people, have been fleeing the country in large numbers due to the civil war, lack of security, economic instability, human rights abuses by the junta, and to avoid being drafted under the regime’s conscription law.
According to a report released on Sept. 8 by the International Organization for Migration’s Thailand office, the number of Myanmar migrants in the country has risen from 3.6 million to 4 million since the 2021 coup.