Myanmar migrants report voting pressure for passport renewals

Rights Suppression

Myanmar migrants report voting pressure for passport renewals

Myanmar migrants in Thailand have to navigate a complex bureaucracy to renew passports and maintain legal status. Now they say there’s a new requirement: participating in the military government’s election.

Published 30 December 2025
3 min read

Chiang Mai – Ko Thaung walked into the Myanmar embassy in Bangkok knowing what awaited him. His passport had expired. He needed it renewed to maintain legal status in Thailand. But embassy staff had a condition: cast a vote in the military junta’s election first.

“They said if I didn’t vote, they wouldn’t stamp my visa,” said Ko Thaung, whose name has been changed for his safety. An NLD party supporter, he fled Myanmar after the 2021 coup fearing persecution. Now, the regime he escaped was forcing him to legitimise it. “So I just decided to get it over with and voted.”

For millions of Myanmar migrants working in Thailand, their legal right to stay and work depends on documents – Certificates of Identity or passports – that only Myanmar’s government can issue. And the military junta is now apparently using that requirement to pressure migrants into voting.

The junta announced that advance voting for Myanmar citizens abroad would take place on 6 and 7 December. When few people showed up, embassy staff began requiring anyone who visited for other services, passport renewals, visa stamps, documentation, to vote first.

The effort has yielded limited results. On 18 December, Myanmar embassy staff in Thailand handed just 249 advance votes to the regime’s Election Commission, according to sources close to the embassy who spoke to HaRDstories. The figure represents a tiny fraction of an estimated 4.1 million Myanmar nationals living in the country.

The Myanmar embassy in Bangkok did not respond to repeated telephone calls seeking comment.

The junta’s first election since seizing power in 2021 began on 28 December, conducted in three phases. Migrants and advocacy groups say the pressure to vote continues, and they worry about what comes next.

“If you go now, you’ll have to vote”

Mya Mya Htwe, whose name has been changed for her safety, has been warning clients for weeks. Based in Mae Sot, a Thai border town just miles from Myanmar, she works as a service provider helping migrants navigate Thailand’s residency system.

“If you’re going to renew your book, sister, wait a while. If you go now, you’ll have to cast a vote,” she told a customer.

The contrast with previous elections is notable. During the 2015 and 2020 general elections under civilian government, Myanmar migrants in Thailand queued overnight to vote. The current low turnout suggests widespread rejection of the junta’s electoral process.

An election without opposition

The junta has promised elections since seizing power in February 2021, when it overthrew the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy (NLD). The military claimed fraud in the 2020 election, which the NLD won in a landslide. Independent observers found no evidence of irregularities.

The upcoming vote is held in three phases – 28 December, 11 January, and 25 January – covering only about 265 of Myanmar’s 330 townships. Large areas remain under the control of armed groups fighting the military in an ongoing civil war.

The NLD cannot participate. The junta dissolved it in March 2023 after the party refused to register under new electoral laws the military had imposed. Suu Kyi, 80, is serving 27 years in prison on charges widely viewed as politically motivated.

Of the parties that contested the 2020 election, representing more than 70 percent of votes cast, 57 percent no longer exist, according to the monitoring group Asian Network for Free Election. The military-aligned Union Solidarity and Development Party dominates the approved candidate list.

Widespread concerns

Research by Burma Affairs and Study of Conflict (BASC) surveyed 209 Myanmar migrants across Thailand regarding election security, participation, and public trust. All 209 expressed fear that not voting would harm their right to live and work in Thailand.

“One of our members went to renew their status during this period,” said Lwan Wai, a BASC director. “When told they had to vote, they turned back without renewing.”

The concern stems from how Thailand manages migrant workers. Whilst Thai authorities issue work permits that restrict workers to specific locations and jobs, any upgrade in status – the ability to move freely, open bank accounts, or travel – requires a “Non-LA” visa stamped into identity documents that only Myanmar’s junta can issue. The regime uses these documents to collect taxes, a system Thailand recognises, creating dependence on a government many workers fled.

Calls for change

U Khaing Gyi, director of the Aid Alliance Committee (AAC), a labour rights organisation that provides free legal assistance to Myanmar migrant workers, argues Thailand could manage migrant residency without involving Myanmar’s military.

“We keep saying this: we are willing to pay the taxes and fees to the Thai government instead,” he said. “Please change this process so we don’t have to deal with the junta. They can do it.”

BASC’s report includes eight recommendations to Thailand’s government, including not recognising the junta’s election and using administrative powers to ease residency and work permit renewal requirements.

Post-election fears

Activists and researchers say migrants are particularly concerned about what happens after 28 December.

Thailand has reduced some restrictions on Myanmar migrants in recent years, citing the unstable situation in their home country. But migrants fear the junta will use the election to claim the country has returned to normal, potentially prompting Thai authorities to tighten requirements or push for repatriation.

What we fear most, and what our respondents fear most, is that they will say, ‘The election is over, now all of you go back,’” said Chris, another BASC director, who asked to use an alias for security reasons.

U Khaing Gyi argued the low voter participation demonstrates migrants’ assessment of the situation.

“Our workers are clearly showing their rejection of this election because they fear this situation,” he said. “I pray the Thai government sees and understands this.”

This story is part of a collaborative reporting project between HaRDstories and Delta News Agency, supported by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives.