Thailand tightens border surveillance as Myanmar infections rise

 

FILE PHOTO: A volunteer checks the temperature of a man at the entrance of Sittwe Hospital, amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Sittwe, Rakhine State, Myanmar August 24, 2020. REUTERS/Stringer

 

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Authorities in Thailand tightened security on Friday along its border with Myanmar and carried out COVID-19 tests in nearby towns to try to keep the virus out, as Myanmar tackles a surge in cases amid a second wave of infections.

 

Both countries have so far been spared the major outbreaks seen elsewhere in Asia, but Myanmar’s quadrupling of its cases to 2,265 in less than a month has put Thailand on the alert.

 

Footage broadcast by local television showed border town residents and scores of Myanmar migrant workers queuing under tents to give swab samples at mobile testing trucks.

 

Military personnel laid out reams of coiled razor wire through forest along the porous frontier to deter illegal entry into Thailand, where several million Myanmar nationals work.

 

Thailand is determined to keep the virus at bay and has sealed off the country to all but returning Thai nationals and approved foreigners, who must all undergo quarantine.

 

The vast majority of Thailand’s 3,461 cases have long recovered and until last week, it had been more than three months without a domestic case.

 

Myanmar has a stay-at-home order in place and has closed schools, suspended domestic flights and barred non-essential travel in response to the resurgence.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-09-11

 

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Wont be long before Prayut comes out with:

 

"whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;"

 

Winston will be rolling in his grave!

17 hours ago, Grumpy John said:

Wont be long before Prayut comes out with:

 

"whatever the cost may be,
we shall fight on the beaches,
we shall fight on the landing grounds,
we shall fight in the fields and in the streets,
we shall fight in the hills;"

 

Winston will be rolling in his grave!

17 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

Thailand tightens border surveillance as Myanmar infections rise

With all the trafficking going on with the help of Thais I should hope so...

Uncle Tu might want to make this a priority, it's not the students he needs to worry about as Thailand he keeps telling us is clean, it's his natives smuggling in infected persons he should be concerned about..

26 minutes ago, hotchilli said:

With all the trafficking going on with the help of Thais I should hope so...

Uncle Tu might want to make this a priority, it's not the students he needs to worry about as Thailand he keeps telling us is clean, it's his natives smuggling in infected persons he should be concerned about..

 

The best way to deal with this is --as it always has been -- to create a practical  process for legal entry. And improve/expedite the processes for migrant workers already in Thailand since before COVID to legally remain; currently up to a million are in legal limbo and effortts to address that are proceding at a snails' pace and poorly communicated.  Take it from me, I employ one of these people and have so far put in over a hundred hours worth of effort to legalize him.  The hardest thing I have ever had to do with Thai bureaucracy in 3 decades of dealing with it.

 

The people smugglers exist because there is both strong demand from Thai employers and supply from migrants who need the work.  Smuggling exists because there is currently no way for people to enter legally to work. And it existed even pre-COVID because the legal ways are so in credibly expensive, time consuming and hard to follow. Again, I know that first hand. I can't imagine many Thai employers going through what I do, and paying what I do,  to ensure workers are legal.

 

Migrant workers entering through legal channels can be subject to mandatory testing and quarantine. They can also be required to join the mandatory Migrant Health Insurance scheme. None of that applies to illegal entry.