In February 2024, Myanmar’s military authorities activated the People’s Military Service Law, giving them a legal basis to conscrupt men and women of eligible age into a conflict the military has struggled to sustain. In practice, much of this recruitment appears to be carried out through detention, coercion, and disappearance rather than formal call-up, and often without notice to families. Myanmar Witness analysed 477 missing-person advertisements posted on Facebook between 2021 and 2025 to help bring this pattern into view. Reports rose sharply after the law came into force, concentrated among men and boys of military age and in military-controlled areas, while thousands of Burmese nationals were reportedly repatriated from neighbouring countries, some reportedly routed directly into military training rather than home.
Executive summary
Myanmar Witness investigated the correlation between the implementation of the conscription law and the increase in social media alerts for missing persons in Myanmar. The State Administration Council (SAC)* officially implemented the People’s
Military Service Law on 10 February 2024 to replenish military forces depleted by the ongoing nationwide conflict.
Myanmar Witness analysed 477 missing-person advertisements collected from Facebook between January 2021 and January 2025. Investigators carried out a focused pilot dataset examining January of each year, which provides a comparison across the pre- and post-implementation periods of the law.
Based on Myanmar Witness’s investigation, the key findings indicate:
- Missing person notices for January rose from four in 2021 (pre-coup) to 82 in 2025.
- Yangon Region recorded the highest number of reported cases (163), followed by Mandalay (48) and Shan State (35).
- Around a total of 3,313 Myanmar citizens were reportedly repatriated from neighbouring countries between February 2024 and May 2025.
- Thailand accounted for 84.4% of total repatriations, with more than 2,500 individuals returned to Myanmar authorities.
- Case studies illustrate that individuals deported from Ranong, Thailand, were transferred to military battalions for training rather than being released to their homes.
The data collected also indicates that men and boys constitute the majority of reported missing persons. This reflects the legal structure of the conscription framework, which targets males of military age.
Additionally, supporting evidence from collected case studies and data suggests that some of the missing individuals were subsequently identified in military custody or training. This includes examples of forced recruitment either following detention or deportation from neighbouring countries.
The findings also show that the enforcement of the People’s Military Service Law is associated with:
- A significant increase in missing person reports on social media
- A disproportionate impact on men and boys
- The use of detention, coercion and repatriation pathways to facilitate
recruitment practices.
This report will highlight the mechanisms driving forced recruitment, assess the growing risks faced by those under the current military service legislation and how missing-person advertisements function as a quantitative proxy for tracking the
civilian impact of conscription policies.