The military council has indefinitely suspended the issuance of Overseas Workers Identity Cards (OWIC) since February 14 without providing any explanation, effectively trapping nearly 70,000 workers who had planned to work abroad. According to overseas employment agencies, the Ministry of Labor under the military council has halted the OWIC card issuance process, citing the need to review foreign worker deployment procedures and regulations, leaving thousands of workers unable to leave Myanmar.
Following the appointment of Chit Swe, former Myanmar Ambassador to Thailand, as the new Labor Minister on January 31, the military council began implementing stricter controls on overseas worker deployment. Currently, only a handful of OWIC cards are being issued specifically for skilled workers heading to Japan, while the issuance for all other basic workers has been completely suspended. The agencies report that this sudden halt has caused significant financial losses for workers who had already paid agency fees and purchased airline tickets, amounting to millions of kyats per person.
During a meeting with overseas employment agencies on February 15, the new Labor Minister Chit Swe stated that the current rate and volume of workers leaving the country was too high and needed to be reduced. He emphasized that the deployment process would undergo more stringent scrutiny, citing military service requirements and political conditions as key factors in the decision. Additionally, he mentioned that over 600 agencies had allegedly violated regulations, suggesting that the process for obtaining PJ passports for overseas employment would become significantly more restrictive. Despite numerous inquiries from affected workers and agencies, the Labor Ministry has not provided any clear timeline for when the OWIC card issuance might resume or what new regulations might be implemented.
