Reluctant Exiles: Another ‘Life or Death’ Exodus From Myanmar

It is an exodus for life. A choice between becoming a human shield or fleeing everything you have – your home, your family, your work and everything familiar to you – for a life of disorientation and confusion.

This is how young people who recently fled the junta’s drive for mandatory military service describe their swift and desperate decisions.

Ko Thakka had never considered leaving Myanmar until the junta activated a law requiring military service on Feb. 10 this year. He was running his own convenience store in Yangon where business was “brisk.” Then, an administrator told young men in his ward to sign up for conscription in the first week of March.