There were 5,461 males and 3,976 females.

In the first three months of this year, 35,563 Burmese migrants went to Thailand: 4,309 males and 3,017 females in January, 3,469 males and 3,702 females in February and 6,330 males and 4,399 females in March.

Thin Thin Myat, chairperson of Myawaddy Border Trade Association, said the exodus amounted to a great loss of human resources, stressing the need to create more domestic jobs.

“They are young people, mostly in their 20s. Every day we see many people go over the Friendship Bridge to go to Thailand to work. I feel sorry. They are able and young. We are losing human resources. We must establish many more factories and industries. Wages must be suitable even if we cannot pay as much as neighbouring countries,” said Thin Thin Myat.

There are delays in building factories in the special economic zone near the Myawaddy border due to limited electricity and investment.

Moe Joe, chairman of the Joint Action Committee for Burma Affairs, which has represented migrants in Mae Sot for over two decades, said low wages forced young people to look for work in Thailand.