The political situation in Myanmar

Young men kidnapped – forced into Myanmar’s military

Young men in Karen State, southern Myanmar, no longer go out after dark. Doing so puts them at risk of being kidnapped and forcibly conscripted into the military, the BBC reports.

Local authorities have been ordered to meet the military junta’s recruitment quotas as the junta battles militia groups, pro-democracy factions, and resistance movements.

Residents of Hpa-An, the capital of Karen State, report that plainclothes military personnel frequently patrol the streets, seizing young men. A black market for recruits has also emerged. Quotas are met by tracking men on their way to work, setting traps using fake job offers, and breaking into people's homes.

"I worry, but I have to go out and work," says 26-year-old tuk-tuk driver Zaw Min.

"Neighbors spread rumors that I sold my husband"

Men who disappear in Myanmar often turn out to have been forcibly conscripted into the military. Ma Moe San Pan has not seen her husband since May 2025, she tells the BBC.

"They are spreading rumors throughout the neighborhood that I sold my husband," she says.

When he disappeared, she contacted her cousin, who works for the local authorities. Two days later, her husband called from a recruitment center. It turned out that the cousin sold him to another municipality that needed to fill its military recruitment quota.