Men in Myanmar are being seized at home, at work, on the street and in restaurants and bars, then handed over or sold to the army, according to human rights groups, journalists and a United Nations report. The practice has emerged under a conscription law that the military government brought into force in February 2024, and it is helping the army recover after setbacks in the civil war.

The case of U Myint Hsaing has become a symbol of the problem. The rickshaw driver vanished from his work in the Yangon region in mid-March. Two months later his wife, Daw Khin Soe Yi, learned he was alive and being trained as a soldier near Mandalay, about 450 kilometres away. She found that his identity card had been changed to make him twelve years younger on paper, bringing him within the conscription age. In a TikTok video addressed to Min Aung Hlaing, the general who seized power in the 2021 coup, she asked for his release, saying their three children were still in school and her health was poor. The video spread widely, but it is unclear whether it has had any effect.

The law allows men aged 18 to 35 to be called up. Since April the army has reportedly set a target of 5,000 new soldiers a month. The Myanmar Defense and Security Institute, a research group founded by former officers who defected, estimates that more than 130,000 recruits have joined since 2024. Nobody can say how many were taken by force. Radio Free Asia, which spoke to more than 30 affected families, found that men are lured with job offers or detained and sometimes beaten until they agree to serve. A recruit reportedly costs between about $2,500 and $7,500 on the black market, with brokers buying cheaply and reselling at a markup. Serving soldiers, local officials, pro-junta militias and criminal gangs are all said to be involved. Progressive Voice, a Myanmar rights group, describes this as a system of human trafficking operating under the cover of conscription.

Those with money can buy their way out, so the burden falls mainly on poor workers and rural residents. Deserters say recruits who cannot be ransomed by their families risk being sent to the front line against rebel forces.

The approach appears to be working for the military. Morgan Michaels of the International Institute for Strategic Studies says conscription has given the army a comeback. After losing ground in 2023 and 2024 to ethnic armed groups and other resistance forces, it has regained territory since 2025, particularly along key transport routes, helped by drones and combat aircraft. Even so, roughly 40 percent of the country remains outside junta control.

The issue comes as international attention to Myanmar shifts. RFI reports that the United States has begun direct talks with the military government, citing scam centres, rare earths and the release of a detained American businessman. Min Aung Hlaing, now president, remains under heavy US sanctions over accusations of genocide against the Rohingya minority.