Leaders from sixteen Mon associations and various individuals have urged the Mon State Chief Minister to review programs providing household documents to migrant citizens working and living in Mon State.
The collective submitted a signed 7-point letter to the state chief minister on June 10. Copies of the letter were also sent to the President, State Counselor, Union Ethnic Affair Minister, Home Affairs Ministry and other respective Hluttaw departments.
“This matter can put the national cause in danger. This type of racism can negatively influence ethnic groups. Therefore, we urge the government to stop this activity immediately,” said U Htun Myint, chairman of the Mon Youth Association of Mudon Township.
U Htun Myint added that the associations requested that the Mon State government meet with them. However, if the government fails to provide transparency in household documents program, the associations have planned to stage a major protest.
The submitted 7-point letter included the following points; 1) Since migrant workers moved into the state, peaceful stability in our area has eroded. Subsequently, crimes occur including stealing, looting, killing, drug dealing, rape and other threatening causes. 2) The migrant citizens are intruding into land and roads belonging to locals as well as trading land. These issues can cause major suffering to the locals.
“We gathered a list of migrant workers across respective areas. The La-Wa-Ka (immigration department) said they would come to provide household documents. Now, they are doing that. However, they have not come to our village yet,” said U Aung Naing Moe, administrator of Ahzin Village Tract, Ye Township.
According to the Mon State Government’s 100-day project, the government would provide temporary household documents to migrant workers who have resided in the state for 6 to 8 months and official household documents would be given to the migrants who have lived in the state for 5 years or more.
According to the 2014 census data, Mon State’s population is over 2 million. Within that population, Mon State has 426,586 citizens working abroad legally and illegally, while there are more than 342,000 migrant workers registered in the state.
