Residents of Mudon Township Face Extortion when Applying for National Identity Cards

April 23, 2014

The Mon community has registered complaints to the Department of Immigration and National Registration in Mudon Township, Mon State, in regards to demands of exorbitant fees for ID registration. Community groups have requested Mon assemblies to inform the Mon State government of this issue, but the extortion remains unresolved.

The issue has been highlighted recently, as large numbers of young Mon people living in Mudon Township have been applying for National Identity Cards at the Mudon-Thanbyuzayat Immigration and National Registration Department. Due to the lack of employment opportunities in Burma, many young people travel to Thailand for work, but they must first have an ID card in order to apply for a passport.

There are two avenues available for those applying for an ID card, emergency application and slow application. The fee denoted by the government for submitting an emergency application is 6 kyat, and the applicant should receive an issued ID card in one to two days. As residents apply for the emergency application at the Mudon-Thanbyuzayat Immigration and National Registration Department, they are being charged an inflated fee of between 15,000 to 60,000 kyat.

As one resident from Do Mar Village, Mudon Township explains, “I lost my ID card, so I had to re-register [for] it at the Immigration and National Registration Department. They asked me whether I needed it faster or later. I told them to make it faster. They said it was 60,000 kyat if I [applied for] emergency and I could get it tomorrow. If we paid what they asked, we would get it without delaying.”

Due to the rampant extortion involved in ID card registration, the Mon community has pointedly addressed the issue every time Mon assemblies hold a meeting, and Mon assemblies have promised the community that they would inform the Mon State government about the issue.

A member of the Mon Democratic Party from Ka Loh Toh Village, Mudon Township, voices his concerns, “Young people need ID cards to apply for passports, in order to go to Thailand for work. Before applying for a passport, they need to register for an ID card first, and 50,000-60,000 kyat [fees are] asked for ID cards. [As Burma’s government is transitioning] we don’t need to pay such an amount.”

Another young man, 19, from Ka Loh Toh Village, explains that he “asked the people responsible at the Immigration and National Registration Department to register for an ID card. They said it cost 45,000 kyat, but they did not tell me how long to wait. I did not have a chance to register because I was in a hurry.”

Written by HURFOM · Filed Under News