Myanmar Journalist To Seek Asylum In Spain

Myanmar correspondent Mratt Kyaw is set to arrive in Madrid on Tuesday where he will for asylum after fleeing the military junta in Yangon.

The 30-year-old correspondent, who will travel to Spain after failing to obtain asylum in Germany, won AFP’s Kate Webb award in 2017 for his outstanding coverage of the ethnic and religious conflicts in Myanmar.

According to the Spanish news agency EFE, which he worked for, Mratt Kyaw said the junta issued an arrest warrant for the reporter, forcing him to seek safety abroad.

Mratt, who has worked for EFE since 2018, criticised the military junta which overthrew civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi on February 1. He has spent four weeks in a detention centre  and would tomorrow fly from Frankfurt to Madrid to ask for asylum in Spain.

A spokesman for Spain’s interior ministry said Mratt’s arrival had not been officially registered but would be treated according to international law.

Reporters Without Borders spokeswoman in Germany Katja Gloger said the interior ministry there had been asked to handle the asylum request after stressing the journalist’s life was in danger.

Myanmar has been in uproar since the putsch, with near-daily protests and a nationwide civil disobedience movement with over 800 people being killed by the military, according to a local monitoring group.

The press has been caught in the crackdown as the junta tries to tighten control over the flow of information.

Myanmar ranked 140 out of 180 countries in the 2021 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index.