A

Illegal Overseas Employment: Three Agents Charged At Mingladon Police Station

Lai Lai Win, Min Min @ Min Thi Khant and Daw Phaw Htoo were filed the law suit for illegally sending workers to Singapore without overseas employment license at Mingladon Police Station on 17th June, in Yangon. 

The agents kept 13 girls aged between 6 to 30 at the house No.(19) in Kwar Nyo Street in Mingalardon township for over a week to two months. 

Police Inspector Wai Lwin told MITV in a phone interview that this case is not human trafficking but just illegally sending of migrants to Singapore.  According to rules and regulations, the agents need to have official license from the Labor Department if they send workers to foreign countries, he added. 

Concerning this case, Than Htut Oo from Myanmar Overseas Employment Agency Federation (MOEAF) said that these girls have to pay their 5-months salary to the local agents and 2-month salary to the employment agency from Singapore.

EC, MOEAF, THAN HTUT OO: Actually, we can say that this case is illegal because the government does not allow sending housemaids to foreign countries. The agents should send the workers who really want to work abroad only. They should not force those who are not willing to go. Otherwise, they might depress when the employers give them pressure. We heard some people commit suicide there and some came back to Myanmar with mental illness. 

Three out of thirteen girls are currently staying at the house of an official of MOEAF. The rest 10 went back to their native places on June 18th, one day after the authorities raided the house.  

VICTIM, DEMOSO TOWNSHIP, CHAW SU: We paid 135, 000 kyats to Daw Phaw Htoo in our township as agent fee to send us to Singapore. When we arrive Yangon, the couple Lai Lai Win and Min Min @ Min Thi Khant took our NRC cards and cut our hair. Now, we don’t want to go back to Kayah state because I need to earn money but don’t know what to do.  

The agents who have been charged, have already sent 20 girls to Singapore in previous times. 2nd Police Inspector Linn Htun Naing from Mingaladon Police Station explained that two offenders are on the run and Lai Lai Win, who’s pregnancy is mature, is on the bail. The investigation is underway in cooperation with Demoso Township police force to arrest the two offenders on the run. The highest penalty for this case is 7-year imprisonment, the police official said.

 

Add new comment