Thousands of Myanmarese nationals in the US are set to lose their temporary legal status and be forced to return to the conflict-torn Southeast Asian nation ahead of elections planned by the military junta.
Donald Trump’s administration said it was withdrawing the Temporary Protected Status designation for Myanmar, citing the upcoming elections as evidence of the situation improving in the country.
Rights groups and activists denounced the decision, which was expected to affect 4,000 people fleeing the civil war in Myanmar, as “egregious” and “unfathomable”.
The decision is consistent with Mr Trump’s wider immigration crackdown that has already seen the Temporary Protected Status withdrawn for citizens of Honduras, Cameroon, Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, Nicaragua, Syria, South Sudan, and Venezuela.
Myanmarese nationals were granted the special status to reside and work in the US after the military overthrew the government of democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021.
Hundreds of people, including Suu Kyi and her party’s senior leaders, were arrested, prompting massive protests. The military rulers responded with a brutal crackdown that escalated into an armed conflict, with some regions turning into active war zones as ethnic militias fought the army.
US secretary of homeland security Kristi Noem conferred with federal agencies and concluded that the protected status was no longer needed for Myanmarese citizens, her department said in a statement.
“The situation in Burma has improved enough that it is safe for Burmese citizens to return home, so we’re terminating the Temporary Protected Status," Ms Noem said, using another name for Myanmar.
“Burma has made notable progress in governance and stability, including the end of its state of emergency, plans for free and fair elections, successful ceasefire agreements, and improved local governance contributing to enhanced public service delivery and national reconciliation.”
The status will expire on January 26.
The DHS credited Myanmar's military government for engaging in ceasefire negotiations with ethnic armed groups in its formal notification of the move.
The department noted that China was playing a mediating role in the negotiations and compared them favourably to past peace efforts.
The move was criticised by international actors, including the UN, which denounced the elections as a “sham” and “theatre” as some opposition parties remained banned and former leader Suu Kyi languished in jail.
“The factual analysis is fantastical,” John Sifton, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch, said, referring to the US decision.
“Contrary to its content, there have been no improvements in governance or stability, the revocation of a state of emergency is meaningless, and the so-called elections announced by the military are widely understood to be theatre – not even a farce, which at least might be amusing, but a sham."
The Homeland Security Department’s “misstatements in revoking TPS for people from Myanmar are so egregious that it’s hard to imagine who would believe them”, he added.
The HRW said “Myanmar’s supposedly revoked state of emergency in July was immediately replaced with a new state of emergency and martial law in scores of townships across nine states and regions”.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said it was “unfathomable” for Myanmar to hold free and fair elections under the current situation.
“How can anyone say that they’re free and fair,” Mr Turk told AFP. “And how can they even be conducted when considerable parts of the country are actually not in anyone’s control, and with the military being party to the conflict and having suppressed its population for years?”
House Foreign Affairs East Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee chairwoman Young Kim, at a hearing on Myanmar last week, described the upcoming elections a "sham" that was "designed to create an illusion of legitimacy while allowing the junta to continue serving as a proxy for China and Russia”.
The decision appeared to be in contrast to the State Department’s human rights report, published in August, which noted “significant human rights issues" in the Southeast Asian country.
The report cited credible reports of arbitrary killings and disappearances, torture, persecution of journalists and restrictions on religious freedom, among a litany of abuses.
The department also warned US nationals against travelling to Myanmar "due to civil unrest, armed conflict, and arbitrary enforcement of local laws”.
The state department did not comment on the DHS’s decision.
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