Pajau Media Channel
1st February, 2024
The local residents said that gold mining workers near Ma Mong Kai village are being paid with drug as wages in IndawGyi region, Mohnyin Township, Kachin State.
The gold mining entrepreneurs distribute drugs as wages to the workers and deduct them from their wages, said a local.
“Since the work finishes at 8:30 PM, there isn’t any time to go out to find and buy drugs. So, the employer made it convenient for their business and paid their wages with drugs. Their wages are covered by drugs, so their families can no longer use or rely with their wages anymore.”
It is said that there are more than 1,000 people living in the gold mining area, ten feet away from Ma Mong Kai village Highway, and 70 percent of them are drug users.
“Some of the employers are having drugs in their hands, because they also use drugs. And some employers who don’t use drugs also have been bought to pay as wages to their workers. They choose the worker who use drugs to work due to the reason that the worker who use drugs can work more,” said a source close to the gold industry.
A lot of drug dealers have been found on the roadside near the gold mine areas around Ma Mong Kai Village. Most of the adults and youth in the village are drug addicts and the number of drug addicts has doubled from last year.
In addition, the gold pit workers exchange their wages for drugs. Some used the money they got from the gold mine to use drugs. It is reported that there are only a small number of workers who don’t use drugs.
It is said that the poiumden has been opened near Ma Mong Kai village and there are more than 100 people who buy opium every day.
Although that poiumden was arrested last year in collaboration with the Ma Mong Kai administration and the relevant authorities, not long after the arrest, they opened it again for trading drugs.
News – Kachin Pyi Thar
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