Burma’s turmoil affects its economy
Businesses, workers struggle amid political upheaval, refugee crisis, pandemic
BANGKOK — Aid workers and activists are warning Burma’s political upheavals risk causing a regional refugee crisis as the strife after a February coup displaces growing numbers of people who have lost their livelihoods.
Tom Andrews, the U.N. special rapporteur for Burma, said violence has left nearly 250,000 people displaced. As Burma’s neighbors prepare for a summit to discuss the coup, he and other rights advocates are warning that the situation could spiral out of control.
“The world must act immediately to address this humanitarian catastrophe,” Andrews said in a Twitter post last week.
A mass civil disobedience movement and efforts by security forces to crush it have left many out of work. Disruptions of internet service by authorities are also wrecking the means many in the impoverished country rely on to make a living.
Burma is often called Myanmar, a name that ruling military authorities adopted in 1989. Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other regime opponents have refused to adopt the name change, as have the U.S. and Britain.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, called a meeting recently on the crisis that has left more than 700 civilians dead, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, which tracks the casualties since the military takeover.
ASEAN’s stance of noninterference in one another’s internal matters and the relatively undemocratic nature of many of the members’ own governments have left Burma’s neighbors wary of imposing any sanctions against the regime that seized power from the elected civilian government of Suu Kyi. She has been imprisoned along with more than 3,000 others.
The growing number of people fleeing bombings and other violence by Burma’s forces “is something they [ASEAN] want to remain in control of. Refugees spilling over the borders are not internal, it becomes a regional issue,” said Sally Thompson, executive director of The Border Consortium, the main provider of food, shelter and other support to refugees from Burma for more than three decades.
“It is the ASEAN countries that can put pressure on [Burma because they are a trading bloc,” Thompson said in a briefing at the Foreign Correspondents Club of Thailand.
She estimated that about 7,000 people were camped along the Salween River on the border with Thailand, with more than 1,000 hiding in Thai forests. That is only one area along borders that stretch from India to the west to China and Thailand to the north and east.
So far, most of those displaced are still within Burma, adding to those already having to flee due to long-running ethnic insurgencies. But fighting has disrupted their access to food and other necessities.
“People have been finding areas of solace inside Myanmar still, but if this conflict broadens into the ethnic states along the border areas, you will see refugee flows,” James Rodehaver, Bangkok-based chief of the Burma team of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said at a recent seminar.
The mass civil disobedience movement has left many Burmese businesses, from banks to hospitals to garment factories, shuttered. That has prompted people to flee from cities back to their home villages, burdening families that had relied on them for support.
The troubles are amplified by the coronavirus pandemic, which raises risks of spreading outbreaks and also forced some migrant workers back to Burma from Thailand and other countries.
“The economy in Myanmar is collapsing. Salaries are no longer being paid. People’s livelihoods are disappearing as they are in hiding for their own safety,” Thompson said. “The entire country is headed for a humanitarian crisis.”
So far, most of the sanctions taken to try to compel Burma’s military leaders to reverse the coup and restore the elected government have been adopted by Western governments.
That includes banning business with major military-affiliated companies that dominate many industries, including the lucrative gems and jade trade.