Myanmar’s junta applauded the Trump administration on Wednesday for halting a scheme that protected its citizens from deportation from the US back to their war-racked homeland.

About 4,000 Myanmar citizens are living in the US 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 grabbed power in a 2021 coup, leading to a devastating civil war, repressive legal measures and arrests of activists.

However, Washington said on Monday it was removing Myanmar citizens’ eligibility, citing “substantial steps toward political stability” that included forthcoming elections and this summer’s ending of emergency rule.

The decision

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