September has seen a turnaround in some migrant workers’ fortunes, but they said they still weren’t vaccinated and feared infection, and their earnings had merely returned to barely getting by.
Seven Banteay Meanchey officials claimed they did not know if a provincial hospital director accused of extortion had been relieved of his position, despite local media reporting the termination.
Thousands of Cambodians have continued to return to the country in the past three days from Thailand’s major Covid-19 Delta-variant outbreak, as provincial authorities along the border have increasingly locked down markets and villages due to the spread of the new viral strain.
Investors in GoldFX, a financial firm run by ruling party scions that says it was cheated out of $20 million by ex-board members, have sought the intervention of Prime Minister Hun Sen, saying they cannot accept the company’s offer of 30 percent compensation for their lost investments.
Opposition activists who fled to Thailand after the CNRP was dissolved fear they could be targeted, followed and attacked for their politics and associations.
Poipet city’s casino industry has been shuttered since late April as they became Covid-19 hotspots, and it’s been more than three months of scraping by for many of the thousands of casino workers who found themselves out of work.
Heng Sreynop says she lives in a red zone in Thailand, and fears Covid-19. She says she understands why the borders need to be closed, but it adds to the pressure. “If we wanted to escape, we couldn’t escape. We don’t know where to escape.”
More than 300 Cambodians came through the O’Smach checkpoint in Oddar Meanchey — almost as many as had returned this whole month — ahead of the closing of borders with Thailand, while other border provinces prepared curfews and lockdown restrictions.
Phnom Penh is banning gatherings with alcohol or with more than 10 people, as well as going out after 9 p.m., following a nationwide order for municipal and provincial authorities to implement the measures to stop the spread of the Delta variant of Covid-19, while eight border provinces will also enter three-tiered lockdown tonight for two weeks.
As much as 25 percent of migrant workers coming back from Covid-stricken Thailand are testing positive, according to provincial authorities, as some returnees said they believe they are contracting the disease in crowded quarantine centers along the border.
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