Coup strands over a million Myanmar workers in Thailand

Largest Burmese community abroad can only watch the unfolding misery

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People attended a candlelit prayer vigil outside the U.N. offices in Bangkok on Mar. 4 for those who died in anti-coup protests in Myanmar. © Reuters

APORNRATH PHOONPHONGPHIPHAT, Nikkei staff writer

BANGKOK -- More than one million workers from Myanmar living in Thailand are standing by helplessly as the military ramps up brutality in their home county to try and break the civil disobedience movement.

According to Thailand's labor ministry, there were 2.5 million migrant workers registered in the kingdom at the end of 2020. Of those, more than one million were from Myanmar, making Thailand host to the largest Burmese expatriate community in the world.

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