Foreigners face uncertainty as US revokes 'protection'

MYANMAR'S junta applauded the Trump administration yesterday for halting a scheme that protected its citizens from deportation from the US back to their war-racked homeland.

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US president Donald Trump.

(AFP)

Around 4 000 Myanmar citizens are living in the United States with “Temporary Protected Status” (TPS), which shields foreign nationals from deportation to disaster zones and allows them the right to work.

Myanmar nationals were made eligible for the TPS programme after the military snatched power in a 2021 coup, sparking a devastating civil war and a raft of repressive legal measures and arrests of activists.

However, Washington said this week it was removing Myanmar citizens’ eligibility, citing “substantial steps toward political stability” that include upcoming elections and this summer's ending of emergency rule.