Myanmar Facebook users angry over Bangkok passport freeze

Mizzima

Myanmar Facebook users are criticizing the junta this week after the Myanmar Embassy in Bangkok and the Chiang Mai consulate halted passport category conversions for Passport for Visit (PV) holders on August 19, requiring central vetting from Naypyidaw before approval.

Since the 2021 coup, many young Myanmar nationals have used PV passports, which require fewer documents, as a fast route out of the country, later converting to work (PJ) or education (PE) passports to secure legal status abroad. Thailand hosts an estimated 4.6 million Myanmar nationals, more than a third undocumented, according to International Organization for Migration estimates.

On Facebook, comments beneath posts about the policy voiced frustration. “The people are being oppressed in every way possible,” one widely shared comment read. Another user wrote that authorities had “restricted PJ holders through various means, and now they’re turning to PV holders too.” A third post summed up life since the coup as “hunger, bullets, every kind of hardship.”

The policy shift follows junta chief Min Aung Hlaing’s visit to the Bangkok embassy during his early-August Thailand trip. Same-category renewals remain unaffected, but applicants converting categories now face waits of at least two months.

The new vetting process risks exposing draft-eligible youth and dissidents in Thailand to greater scrutiny from military authorities, part of a wider pattern of tightening control over Myanmar nationals abroad since the coup.