Fears of mass migration from Myanmar as military plans to draft thousands

Myanmar’s generals wants to make up for recruitment shortfalls and battlefield losses by drafting thousands of civilians.

Ko Naing* is just the sort of young man Myanmar’s military is looking for.

Hoping to make up for recruitment shortfalls and battlefield losses against armed groups fighting to reverse its 2021 coup, Myanmar’s military last month announced plans to enforce a years-old conscription law.

Starting in April, the military says, all men aged 18 to 35 years and women from 18 to 27 years must serve at least two years in the armed forces.

Doctors and other professionals in especially short supply in the military’s ranks may be drafted until they are 45 years old. The country’s military rulers hope to call up approximately 60,000 recruits by the end of the year.

As a doctor, and at a healthy 33 years old, Ko Naing fits the bill for conscription.