‘IT IS HARD’
Myanmar workers have long sought jobs in neighbouring Thailand. Pre-pandemic, an estimated two million were living and working in the kingdom.
With borders closed since March 2020, migrants have no choice but to make the journey illegally.
There is no official data on the size of the influx, but experts say one indicator is the number of migrants who have been caught by authorities.
In the months after Myanmar’s Feb 1 coup, the number of arrests tripled, according to Thai government figures.
It peaked in November with more than 6,000 migrants intercepted – more than a 10-fold increase from the 560 people arrested in January.
According to Geraldine Ansart, the International Organization for Migration’s Thailand mission chief, for each person arrested, “it is realistic to assume that… at least one other Myanmar national could cross the border without being apprehended”.
Thai-based migrant rights activist Roisai Wongsuban said the spike in arrivals is due to Myanmar’s post-coup economic crisis, which has seen inflation soar and work opportunities evaporate.
With food prices doubling and fuel costs spiking as the value of the kyat, Myanmar’s currency, plummeted against the US dollar, many people became destitute, she said.
“It is hard for ordinary people.”
Seasonal workers, who for years had travelled in and out of Thailand, were left in the lurch after COVID-19 spurred border closures.
“The border has been closed for so long that there is no legal pathways for workers who want to come back to Thailand,” Roisai added.
Thai army spokesman General Santipong Thammapiya said it was mainly Thailand’s reopening to tourists in November that was drawing Myanmar workers back – many of whom staff the kingdom’s vital industries, including the service and restaurant sector.
“Workers… wanted to come back,” he told AFP. “They also trust the Thai healthcare system, which can provide treatment for COVID.”
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