A concerning incident has emerged from Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township, where two young men were deceived into military recruitment after responding to a job advertisement for security positions at Shwe Lin Ban Industrial Zone offering a monthly salary of 510,000 kyats. The victims, identified as Maung Zaw Htet Lin and Maung Ye Naung, both 25 years old from Thanatpin Township in Bago Region, were lured to Yangon through a leaflet advertisement promising security work at the industrial zone. The incident has raised serious concerns about deceptive recruitment practices being used to force young people into military service.
The events unfolded when the two young men contacted the phone number listed on the job advertisement and were instructed to come to Yangon. On May 4, they traveled from Thanatpin to Yangon, where upon arrival in Hlaing Tharyar, they were met by two men in civilian clothes on motorcycles. The men then transferred them to a hired vehicle and transported them to the military recruitment center in Danyingone, Insein Township. Their mobile phones were confiscated upon arrival, and it wasn’t until May 8 that they managed to contact their families using a soldier’s phone at the recruitment center, for which they had to pay a fee.
According to a friend of the detained young men, they had been required to submit their biographical information and photographs via Viber messenger even before traveling to Yangon. They were initially told they would need to undergo three months of training to become security guards. However, upon arrival, they discovered they were actually being forced into military training with no possibility of refusing. The two young men are now scheduled to attend the 13th intake of military training beginning this month. This incident has prompted warnings from local sources about the dangers of responding to high-paying job advertisements, particularly those promising security positions, as they may be fronts for forced military recruitment operations.
