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.
Some migrant workers, returning from Thailand to escape a Covid-19 surge and joblessness there, say they are finding the transition back to their hometowns challenging due to quarantine, debt and difficulty finding opportunities.
Cambodian returnees from Thailand have surged since the reopening of borders on Friday, local officials said, with migrants trucked in from checkpoints to expanded quarantine centers.
Hundreds of migrant workers poured back into the country on Friday as its borders to Covid-19-hit Thailand reopened, and the flow is expected to continue in the coming days as many Cambodians face difficulties in the neighboring country.
Border province officials say they have prepared new quarantine facilities as Cambodia is on the cusp of reopening its border to jobless, Covid-wary migrant workers in Thailand.
Hundreds of Cambodians have been put in tents in the Thai border area, with many more arriving every day, as some have attempted to cross uncleared minefields amid border closures due to Covid-19, a local official said.
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.
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.
Leung Sophon, rights group Central’s Thailand-based project officer, said routine testing at workers’ residences — which have been hotspots in the country’s ongoing Covid-19 surge — haven’t been reported for over a week.
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