{"id":18654,"date":"2020-12-24T15:28:50","date_gmt":"2020-12-24T07:28:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mekongmigration.org\/?p=18654"},"modified":"2020-12-24T15:28:50","modified_gmt":"2020-12-24T07:28:50","slug":"scmp-thailand-mulls-lockdown-as-coronavirus-surge-blamed-on-myanmar-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mekongmigration.org\/?p=18654","title":{"rendered":"[SCMP] Thailand mulls lockdown as coronavirus surge blamed on Myanmar workers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Migrant rights groups have urged Thais to empathise with foreign workers who staff the multibillion-dollar fishing industry, as illegal entrants from Myanmar<\/span> have been blamed for a record surge in Covid-19 <\/span>cases that threatens to undo months of successful efforts to contain the pandemic. Thailand has reported more than 1,300 new coronavirus cases since Sunday, with some 80 per cent of them being migrant workers at shrimp farms <\/span>in Samut Sakhon, just outside the capital. Linked cases have also been found across the country.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Four provinces, including Samut Sakhon, have been locked down, with health authorities imposing a \u201cSingapore-style model\u201d of restricting migrant workers from entering or leaving their dormitories <\/span>.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha said workers from Myanmar who had \u201csnuck in and out\u201d of Thailand <\/span><\/a>without the mandatory quarantine were behind the latest outbreak, but raised the prospect that officials had helped them cross the 2,500-kilometre border.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThose who committed wrongdoing \u2013 including government officials \u2013 must face legal charges,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Still, a Twitter hashtag in Thai, \u201cCovid Samut Sakhon\u201d, has exploded with snipes at Myanmar workers by a public that depends on its neighbours for cheap, manual labour but routinely denigrates them.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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One Twitter user posted a picture of migrant workers queuing up for coronavirus testing with the caption, \u201cDo I still live in Thailand?\u201d, while another said, \u201cYou should go back to Yangon\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Thailand testing more than 10,000 for Covid-19 after record daily spike of coronavirus cases<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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The hostility prompted labour rights campaigners to defend the low-paid workforce.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cThere really is no use for pointing fingers. It\u2019s not going to solve any problems,\u201d said Sompong Sakkaew, executive director of LPN (Labour Protection Network), an NGO based in the fishing communities of Samut Sakhon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe should show empathy and solve this problem together with an open heart,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one wants to have the virus. There are Thais driving in from southern provinces daily to the seafood market. It could have been them, too.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a statement on Wednesday, the Mekong Migration Network said it was concerned about the negative impact of Prayuth\u2019s comments that the current outbreak was due to \u201cillegal immigrants\u201d who had \u201cbrought much grief to the country\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The group pointed out that the Samut Sakhon situation highlighted the disproportionate impact the pandemic had on Thailand\u2019s migrant workers, adding that it was the \u201cproduct of heightened risks faced by migrants due to their precarious working conditions and marginalisation from wider Thai society\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Workers<\/div>\n
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Workers clean shrimps in a market in Samut Sakhon province on December 21, 2020. Photo: Xinhua<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Coronavirus infections from illegal border crossings have not been restricted to migrants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Earlier this month, authorities announced a cluster of cases among Thai nationals working at the 1G1 Hotel in the Myanmar border town of Tachilek, after hundreds of women working at a luxury karaoke entertainment complex crossed the northern border illegally.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cI don\u2019t want this to be about people living outside the wall or inside the wall,\u201d Samut Sakhon governor Weerasak Wijitsaengsri told reporters on Tuesday, referring to migrant workers who live in a vast compound, now sealed off, in his province.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cCovid doesn\u2019t care whether you\u2019re Thai or Myanmar nationals, whether it\u2019s your weekdays or weekends,\u201d he said. \u201cWe must come together.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Migrant<\/div>\n
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Migrant workers are screened by health workers at a food market in Bangkok on December 22, 2020. Photo: EPA-EFE<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u2018SECOND WAVE ALREADY HERE\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Until the shrimp farm cluster, Thailand had largely controlled the virus, with its borders open to entrants willing to undergo a 14-day quarantine and the government proud of its record of zero community transmissions for several months.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But its tourist-facing economy has taken a battering from global travel restrictions, and exports are likely to take a further hit with the latest surge \u2013 especially for the seafood sector, endangering Thailand\u2019s status as the world\u2019s seventh largest seafood producer.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The latest surge accounts for almost one-fifth of Thailand\u2019s total caseload of 5,762.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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On Tuesday, Prayuth warned that if necessary, he would order a new lockdown \u2013 something that could sink tens of thousands of businesses that have staggered through a lost year, hoping the new year holiday spend would deliver some relief.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Southeast Asia\u2019s second largest economy was already forecast to contract by at least 6 per cent by year-end.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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That has frozen the country\u2019s real estate market and brought about a personal debt crisis despite a record government stimulus of nearly US$60 billion, while second quarter GDP plummeted 12.2 per cent after a first lockdown.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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