GENEVA (27 November 2025) – The United States decision
to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for people
fleeing Myanmar is an assault on human rights and human
decency based on a cruel fiction that ignores overwhelming
evidence of Myanmar’s spiralling crisis, a UN expert
warned today.
“Defying reality, this decision puts
thousands at extreme risk while legitimising a brutal regime
that continues to use weapons of war to attack civilians,”
said Tom Andrews, UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights
situation in Myanmar.
“It is inconceivable that any
good-faith review of Myanmar’s situation could conclude
that conditions are safe or improving,” Andrews said.
“The military junta has locked the country into a downward
spiral of violence and repression. Attacks on civilians have
reached record highs this year as the military burns
villages, bombs churches, and jails, tortures, and executes
its opponents.”
On 25 November 2025, the Department
of Homeland Security announced the termination of TPS for
Myanmar effective 26 January 2026. Nearly 4,000 Myanmar
nationals currently benefit from this protection. Homeland
Security Secretary Kristi Noem justified the decision by
claiming conditions in Myanmar – including upcoming
elections and a ceasefire – “no longer hinder the safe
return” of its nationals.
Andrews called the
Secretary’s reliance on the junta’s pledge of ‘free
and fair’ elections “deeply disturbing.”
“The
sham polls being staged by the junta are nothing more than a
charade to entrench military dominance,” he said. “You
cannot have free and fair elections when credible candidates
are jailed, opposition parties banned, independent
journalists arrested, and the electorate terrorised into
submission. No credible observer disputes these
facts.”
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The Special Rapporteur said that many TPS
beneficiaries are human rights advocates, opposition
figures, journalists, and others who champion democracy and
human rights – values historically upheld by the United
States.
“Sending these champions of human rights and
human decency back to Myanmar would expose them to
detention, torture, forced conscription, and execution,”
Andrews warned. “Such forced returns would not only be
morally indefensible but could violate the principle of
non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international refugee and
human rights law that prohibits returning individuals to
places where they face persecution or serious
harm.”
“It is in the United States’ national
interest—and consistent with its international
obligations—to protect those who will help rebuild Myanmar
as a democratic, rights-respecting nation,” the Special
Rapporteur said.
Thomas Andrews is
the Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in
Myanmar
