Myanmar’s junta on Wednesday praised the Trump administration for halting a plan that had protected its citizens from deportation from the US to their war-torn homeland.
About 4,000 Myanmar nationals are living in the US with Temporary Protected Status (TPS), which protects foreign nationals from deportation in disaster areas and gives them the right to work.
Myanmar citizens became eligible for the TPS program after the military seized power in a 2021 coup that sparked a devastating civil war, repressive legal measures and arrests of activists.
However, Washington said on Monday it was removing eligibility for Myanmar citizens, citing “important steps toward political stability,” including upcoming elections and the end of emergency rule this summer.
The decision has been criticized by monitors, who call the elections a sham, while local martial law remains in place in many places and the military is recruiting men to strengthen its ranks.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun said Washington’s announcement was “a positive statement”.
“Myanmar citizens in the United States can return to the homeland,” he said, urging them to “come back to Myanmar and vote in the general election.” He said, “We wish to inform you that all of you are welcome to participate in building a modern and developed nation.”
Announcing the end of TPS, Donald Trump’s Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said: “It is safe for Burmese citizens to return home.”
However, the UN’s Independent Investigative Mechanism on Myanmar (IMIM) warned on Wednesday that it was increasingly receiving reports of “serious international crimes committed in Myanmar ahead of the elections”.
The detention of election critics and airstrikes to capture territory ahead of scheduled voting “could amount to a crime against humanity by inflicting oppression and terror on the civilian population”, IIMM head Nicolas Koumjian said in a statement.
There is no official death toll in Myanmar’s civil war and estimates vary widely.
More than 90,000 people have been killed on all sides since the 2021 coup, according to the nonprofit organization Armed Conflict Location + Event Data, which collates media reports of violence.
Mee Mee Khant, executive director and co-founder of the US-based advocacy group Students for a Free Burma, called the TPS stoppage “a slap in the face to the community” of deported citizens.
“Obviously it’s not really safe to go back home,” he told AFP. “Everyone is really upset by this news.”
Myanmar’s military is holding phased elections starting on December 28 in hopes of returning normalcy after seizing power and jailing prominent democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi.
Suu Kyi’s party has been disbanded, people protesting against the election can face up to a decade in prison under new junta-imposed rules, and war is ongoing in many parts of the country.
“It is unthinkable to hold elections under these circumstances,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk told AFP this month.
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