Authorities have found out that two Japanese companies tried to illegally send nine Myanmar citizens to Japan to work via the Yangon International Airport.

Immigration officers checked a group of seven men and a group of women who were leaving for Japan by an All Nippon Airways flight. When checked if they had labour smart cards as they wanted to go to Japan under business visas, they could not show any evidence. They carried only normal passports, not passports for employment. They were then handed over to the anti-human trafficking police force for further investigation. 

Officials from Yangon Region Labour Department and Myanmar Overseas Employment Agencies Federation questioned the nine who tried to go to Japan without necessary documents. 

According to questioning of a Japanese who would accompany the two Myanmar women, the company that tried to send the women runs a Japanese factory in Monywa, Salingyi Township, Sagaing Region. Since 2016, the company has been sending factory workers illegally to Japan. So far, 12 people have been sent. They reportedly had to sign the agreement promising to work in Japan for one year and then at the factory for three years. Women workers earned about Ks450,000 in Japan and when they arrived back, they had to work at the factory in Myanmar for a monthly salary of K145,000. 

According to questioning of an interpreter from the Japanese company from Asia Plaza in Yangon that tried to send the seven men to Japan, they are all engineers and they had to pay US$2,800 each for service fee to work at car spare part factory in Japan. 

Measures are now being taken to sue those Japanese companies for illegally sending Myanmar citizens to Japan, according to the information committee of MOEAF.