"Thailand reports biggest coronavirus surge" - and the majority are "Myanmar migrant workers"? How?

[Na Fan]

Right.

 

The borders are shut.

 

If you want in, you pay ridiculous amounts of money to quarantine yourself.

 

Yet, we seem to have a new outbreak, in an area with predominantly "migrant workers" from one of the poorest countries in SEA. Working in a profession that is (formerly?) tied to slavery and/or very very low wages.

 

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

 

How does everyone that is reporting on this, not even pose that simple question? Yes, that includes you, Thaivisa.

 

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrott.

 

 

 

 

[lovethai123]

The borders may be porous. May be they pay their way to thailand. But u cant say that. The thais will be hurt and to save face and and they will threaten you or may be lashback to prove u wrong. An example

 

 

[kingofthemountain]

A good and intersting question indeed

the answer will be difficult to come because

 

it's the Thai goverment duty to control the borders, and they are not

ready to recognize that they are in fact unable to do their job correctly

despite al the money spend for it

 

it's Thai people in charge of the reception and the transport of the illegals on the Thai side of the border, of course they do it for money, and a part of this money is used to pay the local authorities to keep their eyes closed on this trafic.

 

The employers of these illegals workers are Thais, and they have a lot of money

still they don't want to pay the quarantine for the migrants workers, then they prefer

to employ illegals migrants and pay them under the minimum wage

There is a Thai administration in charge of the control of the markets and workers

again for some reason they have failed to do the job they are paid for.

 

For all of these reasons, because a lot of thai people are responsible for this fiasco

including few of them with big money and in the high levels of the administration

it seems much more convenient to point a finger at a bunch of poor burmeses

and to not ask a lot of good questions, the face is saved, we have the culprits

Edited December 20, 2020 by kingofthemountain

[Captain Monday]

How? Because of a classic  Dog and Pony Show shutting down the country to foreigners whilst "migrant workers" are imported by the truckload with ineffective or no testing or quarantine.

[placeholder]

19 hours ago, Na Fan said:

Right.

 

The borders are shut.

 

If you want in, you pay ridiculous amounts of money to quarantine yourself.

 

Yet, we seem to have a new outbreak, in an area with predominantly "migrant workers" from one of the poorest countries in SEA. Working in a profession that is (formerly?) tied to slavery and/or very very low wages.

 

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

 

How does everyone that is reporting on this, not even pose that simple question? Yes, that includes you, Thaivisa.

 

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrott.

 

 

 

 

How did they get in before? Weren't the border shut to them back then also?

[sanmyintmaung]

23 minutes ago, placeholder said:

How did they get in before? Weren't the border shut to them back then also?

Official border crossings are shut. However, border is 2,416 km long and there is no border fence. Not difficult for migrant workers to come into the country through the porous border without anyone noticing.

 

Edited December 21, 2020 by sanmyintmaung

[Surelynot]

GREED, CORRUPTION AND EXPLOITATION...end of.

[TSF]

18 hours ago, Captain Monday said:

How? Because of a classic  Dog and Pony Show shutting down the country to foreigners whilst "migrant workers" are imported by the truckload with ineffective or no testing or quarantine.

As Judge Judy always says...just follow the money. Foreigners, especially the Caucasian variety, have money. Slaves imported from Burma do not. 

[TheFishman1]

Money TIT

[TheFishman1]

Sometime Thai officials who are in charge of watching the border also except money from people crossing the border that’s what I’m talking about TIT

[MikeN]

On 12/21/2020 at 7:21 PM, sanmyintmaung said:

Official border crossings are shut. However, border is 2,416 km long and there is no border fence. Not difficult for migrant workers to come into the country through the porous border without anyone noticing.

 

According to Mr Google, the Thai Army has 350,000 active personnel. So if your figure is right that is one soldier per 6.71 meter, that should be enough to seal the border.

Oh, I forgot.....many of them are servants and drivers for the hundreds of generals ????

 

[Kerryd]

It's not that hard. Sheesh, look at a map. It's not like the border between the Soviets and the "West" during the Cold War (yes, I was there in the mid-80s and saw the border between what was then West Germany and Czechoslovakia, including the trenches, ditches, guard posts and bunkers complete with armed soldiers - and certain others whose job it was to take pictures of anyone approaching the fence for later identification).

Thailand's borders with Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are like Canada's border with the US (and most borders in the modern EU and other places actually). Largely just a line on a map. Manned border crossings at various roads crossing the border. Maybe the odd patrol now and then to try and spot drug smugglers.

Awhile ago, Canada had a surge of "Asylum Seekers", mostly from Nigeria, who'd made their way into the US but the US decided they weren't legitimate asylum seekers and were going to start deporting them.
Due to a certain Agreement Canada was a part of, if those "asylum seekers" tried to cross at a manned border crossing, they would have been detained and sent back to the USA. However, some smart human traffickers (also known as Immigration "Consultants" and lawyers) were advising those people to simply go around the border checkpoints and cross over on foot as there was a loophole that would let them stay in Canada so long as they didn't arrive through a "manned border crossing". (Of course, once they were in Canada those "consultants" and lawyers would be happy to represent them in court, with their fees being paid for by the government of course.)

They had pictures of these people walking into Canada with RCMP officers there to point which direction to go ! 
Once in Canada they were home free and pretty much set for life as they immediately got (free) access to housing, medical care, social assistance and other benefits.

There's a spot in BC where the "border" is basically a ditch between 2 roads. They keep an eye on it because it used to be a thing for drug smugglers to drive down the "Canadian" road and through a backpack into the ditch. Then someone else would drive down the "American" road, stop, grab the backpack and drive away.

The borders around Thailand are not much different in many places. That's how all those "infected" women who were working in Myanmar were able to get back into Thailand and avoid quarantine. They simply walked around the border crossing, probably using some well established trail through the jungle, then hopped on a bus and went home.

No need to bribe anyone or do anything extraordinary to get across.

Back in '98 I was in Mae Hong Son and the tuk-tuk guy suggested a trip to a war museum not far away. We went down a highway, then a paved road, then a dirt road until finally we saw some buildings and people. He stopped to ask directions. Turns out we were at a military camp in the jungle on the border with Myanmar. Had we gone another 100 meters we would have been in Myanmar.
No signs. No barriers. No fences. I was looking around the area and it wasn't even heavy jungle (or a lot of the undergrowth had been cleared out). It would have been easy to simply walk a couple hundred meters off the road and around the camp. Walk another 10 kms (maybe less) until you get to the paved road and get a ride to the next village.

And all it takes, really, is for just one infected person to move into a crowded community and within days you could have hundreds of other people who are infected as well.
No doubt a number of those Burmese travelled together so there would have been more than just one infected person in that "community".

[ChakaKhan]

On 12/20/2020 at 1:29 PM, Captain Monday said:

a classic  Dog and Pony Show

20 bt for thais...200 for farang.....rumor is that its just 2 soi dogs, the other just has a busy tail(pony)

[transam]

On 12/21/2020 at 7:00 PM, placeholder said:

How did they get in before? Weren't the border shut to them back then also?

There are no border walls. Even Lao folk canoe across into LOS daily...

[robertson468]

Two words - incompetence and corruption.  And at all levels of Thai Society.  So sad! 

[polpott]

On 12/20/2020 at 4:48 PM, Na Fan said:

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

 

How does everyone that is reporting on this, not even pose that simple question? Yes, that includes you, Thaivisa.

Its been reported that the majority of those testing positive in Samut Sakhon have been here for years. One woman, highlighted in a TV news item had been here with her family for 7 years.

 

 

Edited December 23, 2020 by polpott

[sanmyintmaung]

1 hour ago, MikeN said:

According to Mr Google, the Thai Army has 350,000 active personnel. So if your figure is right that is one soldier per 6.71 meter, that should be enough to seal the border.

Oh, I forgot.....many of them are servants and drivers for the hundreds of generals ????

 

Even the USA with the largest standing army in the world cannot secure their border with Mexico which is only 3145km long from illegal immigrants. There is no way a third world country like Thailand can completely secure its border.

Edited December 23, 2020 by sanmyintmaung

[KhunBENQ]

On 12/21/2020 at 7:21 PM, sanmyintmaung said:

Official border crossings are shut. However, border is 2,416 km long and there is no border fence. Not difficult for migrant workers to come into the country through the porous border without anyone noticing.

And now wait for advise from the forum experts how to guard/shut such a border.

Always illegal crossing in both ways possible.

The former border between west and east Germany was 1378 km.

It was quite tightly closed by the commies but do you know what it meant?

[salsajapan]

On 12/20/2020 at 11:48 PM, Na Fan said:

Right.

 

The borders are shut.

 

If you want in, you pay ridiculous amounts of money to quarantine yourself.

 

Yet, we seem to have a new outbreak, in an area with predominantly "migrant workers" from one of the poorest countries in SEA. Working in a profession that is (formerly?) tied to slavery and/or very very low wages.

 

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

 

How does everyone that is reporting on this, not even pose that simple question? Yes, that includes you, Thaivisa.

 

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrott.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How stupid can be people to imagine that any land border will be 100% closed ?

In case you don't know you can even enter north korea without telling anyone !

 

 

[digger70]

On 12/20/2020 at 11:48 PM, Na Fan said:

Right.

 

The borders are shut.

 

If you want in, you pay ridiculous amounts of money to quarantine yourself.

 

Yet, we seem to have a new outbreak, in an area with predominantly "migrant workers" from one of the poorest countries in SEA. Working in a profession that is (formerly?) tied to slavery and/or very very low wages.

 

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

 

How does everyone that is reporting on this, not even pose that simple question? Yes, that includes you, Thaivisa.

 

Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrott.

 

 

 

 

Don't Forget where you are, Thailand Right.

That should tell you enough . Anything is Possible here ,People come and go as they want .  At Checkpoints  and Anywhere along the Border.

Sneaking across the border  and some will Pay to get into/out Thailand.

Corruption is Everywhere no matter where you look. from you're next door Neighbor op to the Top off the officials in the country.

[Russell17au]

All the neighbouring countries to Thailand have an agreement that their citizens can get a 30 day border pass very cheap, my wife got one to go to Laos and it only cost 50Baht. So some of these from Myanmar would have entered Thailand on these border passes and worked illegally and got stuck here when the borders closed and others have been able to sneak through the holes in the border and not use the manned border crossings. We have a friend from Laos who entered via a border pass and has been here since the border closed and she has been able to extend her pass at the local immigration office. So not all are illegal immigrants but there are many illegal migrant workers being paid very small wages by the rip off Thai bosses

[khunPer]

On 12/20/2020 at 5:48 PM, Na Fan said:

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

If you read the Thai news, the new Covid-19 break out is claimed to be due to illegal immigrants from Myanmar; i.e. illegal border crossings.

[Seeall]

On 12/21/2020 at 1:28 AM, kingofthemountain said:

A good and intersting question indeed

the answer will be difficult to come because

 

it's the Thai goverment duty to control the borders, and they are not

ready to recognize that they are in fact unable to do their job correctly

despite al the money spend for it

 

it's Thai people in charge of the reception and the transport of the illegals on the Thai side of the border, of course they do it for money, and a part of this money is used to pay the local authorities to keep their eyes closed on this trafic.

 

The employers of these illegals workers are Thais, and they have a lot of money

still they don't want to pay the quarantine for the migrants workers, then they prefer

to employ illegals migrants and pay them under the minimum wage

There is a Thai administration in charge of the control of the markets and workers

again for some reason they have failed to do the job they are paid for.

 

For all of these reasons, because a lot of thai people are responsible for this fiasco

including few of them with big money and in the high levels of the administration

it seems much more convenient to point a finger at a bunch of poor burmeses

and to not ask a lot of good questions, the face is saved, we have the culprits

Best write up and better than most journalists make these days....  well done..

[Colabamumbai]

Illegal border crossers, lax Thai enforcement, testing etc. Its not our problem. 

[brianthainess]

Apart from the illegal's crossing, there are hundreds of trucks crossing daily! delivering/collecting from factories, markets etc the drivers do not go through any quarantine.

[Thingamabob]

There is hardly any border anywhere in the world which is entirely porous-fee. Even if they were efficient the Thais would struggle to prevent illegal crossings.

[KhaoYai]

On 12/20/2020 at 4:48 PM, Na Fan said:

Sorry, but, am I missing something or how the F did they get here in the first place?

Yes, you are missing something - the last 3 weeks news reports!