“Myanmar junta prepares to send migrant workers to Russia in 2025”

Myanmar’s junta is preparing to send migrant workers to Russia, following a request from the country as it faces shortages of foreign workers in agriculture and manufacturing amid its war with Ukraine, a Myanmar employment official said.

The first group likely will be sent in 2025, said Charles Myo Thant, chairman of the Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Association, or MOEAA. They will take up jobs in agriculture, livestock, construction and factories, and they will need to learn Russian, he said…

The request comes as Russia, which has waged war in Ukraine since February 2022, faces an acute labor shortage of nearly 5 million workers, along with a need for additional soldiers, as hundreds of thousands of adult males have been conscripted into the army.

Russia also tightened labor restrictions amid a crackdown following a deadly terrorist attack on a concert venue in Moscow in March ..

Of Myanmar’s nearly 600 overseas employment agencies, only two have secured licenses to send migrant workers to Russia…

Kyaw Ni went on to say that migrant workers sent to Russia may have their rights violated, and so accused the junta of engaging in human trafficking and modern slavery….