30 April 2026 By Moe Nya
BANGKOK, Thailand — Thousands of Myanmar migrant workers in Thailand are facing significant financial and logistical burdens following a new directive from the Myanmar Embassy requiring an official endorsement for those wishing to visit home and return to their jobs.
Under the new rules effective from 5 May, workers must apply for an embassy recommendation at the Labor Attaché Office in Bangkok before they can process their Overseas Worker Identification Card (OWIC). The mandate requires a slew of documents, including a formal letter of permission for leave from their employer—a requirement that labor rights groups say hands too much power to company bosses.
“While the 150 Baht processing fee seems small, the hidden costs are enormous,” one worker living outside Bangkok told MPA. “For those of us in the provinces, it means taking days off work, paying for travel to the capital, and navigating bank payments. It’s a massive burden for a simple visit home.”
The directive has sparked fears that workers with difficult employers or those in high-pressure sectors may be denied the chance to visit their families altogether. “If an employer refuses to sign the leave letter, the worker is effectively trapped,” a labor rights analyst explained.
The junta-controlled Ministry of Labor defended the move, claiming it is necessary to prevent workers from bypassing formal recruitment channels. In a stern warning issued on 28 April, the ministry stated that any worker unable to provide an embassy endorsement or employer’s permission would face temporary bans on future overseas travel and could be placed on a “Blacklist.”
The junta’s intensified scrutiny of overseas workers comes as it seeks to regulate the flow of citizens and ensure tax compliance and formal recruitment cycles following the 2021 military coup.
Labor activists argue that these regulations infringe upon the freedom of movement of documented workers. “This is about control,” an activist based in Thailand said. “By making the return process so complicated and expensive, the regime is discouraging formal migration and inadvertently pushing people toward illegal channels.”
The new office at the Labor Attaché on Silom Road is set to open for these applications during business days. For many Myanmar citizens, who already face a devalued currency and economic hardship, this latest bureaucratic hurdle is another sign of the mounting pressures of working under a regime that views its diaspora primarily through the lens of surveillance and revenue.
