PUBLISHED : 17 Feb 2024 at 04:00
The Thai embassy in Myanmar has decided to curb the increasing number of visa applications to deal with an influx of Myanmar citizens fleeing into Thailand to avoid mandatory military service in April.
The Thai embassy has announced on its Facebook account that it is only accepting 400 visa applications per day, effective from Thursday.
The embassy has started providing queue-numbered tickets to those who wish to apply for a visa from 8.30am every working day.
One queue ticket is reserved for one application and cannot be transferred to other applicants. The embassy will blacklist and reject the applications of those who fake queue numbers or transfer them to others.
The embassy also stated that Myanmar passport holders can enter Thailand for tourism purposes without a visa for up to 14 days.
Sources in Myanmar said that Myanmar nationals have shown up in large numbers at the Thai embassy in Yangon to apply for visas. The number is estimated at a thousand per day, the sources said.
According to Reuters, Myanmar’s ruling military plans to call up young people for mandatory service from April and also require retired security personnel to serve, media reports cited a junta spokesman as saying, as the army struggles to crush an anti-junta insurgency.
Myanmar has been in turmoil since the military seized power from an elected government in a 2021 coup and plans by the junta to call up more people to fight.
Last Saturday, the junta said a law governing mandatory military service would be enforced for men aged 18 to 35 and women aged 18 to 27 for up to two years. On Tuesday, it said this would begin in April.
A conscription law was introduced in 2010 but not enforced.