Illegal overseas job recruiters target industrial workers

Some labour advocates warned that industrial workers were being targeted to go overseas as illegal workers.
Taking advantage of the growing popularity of TikTok among young people, there has been an increase in the use of TikTok to recruit workers for factories in China and Thailand, and some have gotten into trouble in foreign countries for entering illegally, she said.
“Some have recently gone abroad via illegal channels. They don’t have passports. I don’t know how they are recruited from China. These recruiters target the industrial zones. Some are scammers. Some go abroad with official passports after getting in touch with official agencies. No matter how much we explained, it was of little avail. They replied that some of their close friends from the village had gone to which country, with the contact information of whom, and so on. As the number of TikTok users rises, they organize from TikTok. There are many cases related to Dubai. Some went to Dubai on loans. When they arrived there, they didn’t get a job, were tortured by the hosts, sold them to others and so on,” she added.
During this Thingyan, some are preparing to leave for jobs in factories abroad after resigning from their current jobs, and some are going back to their hometowns.
“Some quit their jobs to go abroad, especially to China or Thailand. As they received their salary on 5 April, they might be on the way now. Most of them usually hire a private car to return home during Thingyan. Some towns in Ayeyawady, Magway and Monywa send cars to bring them back. Only a few have bought bus tickets. If there are only three or four workers from a village, they go back by bus after buying tickets. We have to wait and see whether they migrate or go back home when Thingyan is near,” she said. — MT/ZN