The students have lived in a home in Bogyoke village in Thanlyin, Rangoon, while studying at schools including primary school, middle school, high school and university.

The Thanlyin Township Administrative Office ordered the students to return to their hometowns no later than 6 p.m. Wednesday. No reason was given for the order.

The village head said they could not renew their guest registrations. Under Burmese law, if a Burmese citizen wants to stay overnight at a friend’s home or anywhere else where he or she is not listed as a house member, their stay must be reported to local authorities.

‘They came to the home last night’, said a source. ‘A total of 18 policemen and local authorities. Then they divided the students into small groups of about five students each and took their photos’.

The authorities did not say anything about forcibly evicting the students from the homes, said the source.

Under Burmese laws, if an overnight guest fails to report a guest registration. Both the guest and the landlord can be sentenced to a month in prison or fined 200 kyat.

‘They enforce the law and exercise it when they need to and to ignore it when they don’t care. If they want a person not to stay in an area, they usually refuse to issue guest registration permit’, said human rights lawyer Phoe Phyu in Rangoon.

‘The guest only needs to inform the authorities that he will stay in the home. The authorities don’t have the right to decide whether the guest will be permitted or not. Now, the local authorities are doing things not written in the law’, Phoe Phyu said. The students are from Putao, Machanbaw and Sumprabun townships.

Although the reason of the eviction is still unknown, it coincides with the time when fighting between the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) and government troops began.

Observers said the Burmese authorities might be worried that Kachin would protest against the fighting.

A related issue was the case of boarding students at the Bayda Institute in Thingangyun, Rangoon, who have not been permitted to renew their guest registrations, according to school principal Myo Yan Naung Thein.

‘Since May 1, they have not been permitted to renew guest registrations. But students are still staying and studying in the school. Although they refused to allow guest registrations, the students will stay in the school. If they want, they can catch us. We all agreed to stay at the school. But they have not done anything else so far’, Myo Yan Naung Thein told Mizzima.

The Bayda Institute offers courses in social science, global conflicts, South East Asian studies and Basic English and is supported by the National League for Democracy.