China deports illegal workers
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Chinese authorities deported 352 illegal Myanmar workers for the first time on Thursday, according to the Department of Immigration and National Registration in Muse township.
“The Chinese side sent back 352 Myanmar workers,” said Htay Win, immigration officer of the Nandaw check point. “According to their border pass, Myanmar workers can work only in Kyal Gaung-Shweli [also called Ruili in China]. However, they passed Shweli and went up to Binzhou city, Shandong province. So China sent them back. This is the first time ever,”
Among the 352 deported are 276 men and 76 women. Some worked there for only five or six months.
“As our business is not good, we worked in China,” Hla Htut, one of the deported workers, told Eleven Media. “The Chinese company offered me a job. They did not pay well. They pay under the point system. If I cannot work for a day, they actually cut my salary for about 10 days. It is not okay.”
Another worker Mu Mu said: “I worked at a poultry factory in Binzhou city. There are many Myanmar workers there. There is discrimination between Chinese and Myanmar workers in the workplace.”
Along the Myanmar-China border, authorities issue border passes or temporary border passes to travellers. At the Muse gate, about 6,000 to 7,000 temporary border passes and 3,000 border passes are issued every day.
