Loopholes in the border create favorable conditions for economic activity. But countries quickly blame each other as the number of infections increases rapidly due to illegal border crossing.
The border between Thailand and Myanmar is more than 2,400 km long, mostly dense jungle. Myanmar has uncontrolled corona virus infections. Thailand has not had any such cases so far.
But over the past few weeks, at least 19 cases of Covid-19 in Thailand have involved workers traveling between the two countries without being detected. The situation has worried officials in Thailand, one of the countries with a successful anti-epidemic strategy in the world.
Thai health officials are racing to track down hundreds of people who may have been exposed to the virus. The story highlights how regions like Southeast Asia, which depend on loosened border lines, are fighting to stop the virus while letting economic activity continue.
Blame the neighbors
From Mexican farm workers in California to Ethiopian construction workers in the Persian Gulf and Zimbabwean helpers in South Africa, immigrants are the main workforce in many countries. However, some countries are invoking illegal migrant workers to accuse neighboring countries of the virus outbreak.
In Southeast Asia alone, Myanmar blamed people from Bangladesh, and Thailand blamed Myanmar. China says its southwest border area is being affected by the influx of people from Southeast Asia.
The winding border between Myanmar and Thailand - separating a virus-controlled country from an uncontrolled one - is becoming the focal point of the crisis.
"The border is very long," said Colonel Chatri Sanguantham, who commanded the army of soldiers patrolling the mountainous region of northern Thailand, near the Myanmar town of Tachileik.
"They will do anything, take whatever measures, to get what they want, including illegal entry into the country," he said of migrant workers from Myanmar.
Compared to other countries, the total number of cases in Thailand - more than 4,000 cases - seems unreasonably low. But over the past few days, Thailand has said it has strengthened border areas, increased military patrols and strapped barbed wire at popular illegal crossings to try to stop the spread of the virus near by. here.
Police have arrested suspects of human trafficking. They are paid at least $ 15 to help migrants illegally cross the border, allegedly.
Undocumented workers, often working in crowded conditions, receive special attention from the authorities because the unclear legal status also prevents them from admitting getting sick, increasing the risk of the virus. spread undetected.
Suthasinee Kaewleklai, coordinator of the Thailand Migrant Workers' Rights Network, said: "Because these people enter illegally, they will escape. If they get sick, they will never go to see them. Doctors often go to the hospital for examination ".
Illegal migration
The dangers of ignoring foreign workers, even those registered with the government, are evident in Singapore, where the virus spreads rapidly in crowded immigrant dormitories. .
While thorough traceability has helped contain outbreaks in other communities in Singapore, migrant workers are not closely monitored, making them more susceptible to the disease, rights groups said.
In Malaysia, thousands of foreign workers test positive for corona virus at Top Glove, the world's largest disposable glove manufacturer.
Malaysian officials are pursuing legal action against the company for letting workers live in cramped conditions that spread Covid quickly.
And in Saudi Arabia, the virus spread uncontrollably in filthy centers holding workers from Asia and Africa, who are frequently mistreated and deprived of their wages. When the immigrants were eventually deported to their home countries, some brought the virus with them.
Virus vigilance has risen in the Thai border town of Mae Sot, just across the river Moei opposite the Myanmar town of Myawaddy. Soldiers dressed in camouflage and masked patrol the riverbank.
Before a pandemic happened, hundreds of thousands of people each year crossed the river to work, study and play in Thailand. The country has about 5 million migrants, usually coming to work, and only about half of them have legal documents.
At the narrowest stretch of the river, children can throw a ball back and forth between the two countries. During the dry season, migrants wade across the Moei River, and in the rainy season they sailed.
Thailand began tightening the Mae Sot border in the spring, halting traffic across the Huu Nghi Bridge to Myawaddy. Restrictions were slightly eased over the summer, then tightened again in August as cases in Myanmar increased rapidly.
However, illegal border crossings continued, including those who wanted to avoid mandatory quarantine for two weeks in Thailand. Thais still go to Myanmar, where casinos and clubs operate in a more loosely regulated environment, to have fun for several hours. Boats dodged border posts, blatantly transporting goods back and forth.
Despite these movements, Thailand has not reported any community infections since May. Hospitals are treating about 180 Covid-19 cases, according to health officials. Most of them were returnees from abroad and were positive during mandatory quarantine.
However, in the past few months, people from Thailand have had positive results in Japan, Malaysia and South Korea. According to Myanmar authorities, at least 70 migrant workers returning from Thailand had a positive result in Myawaddy.
In September, Ma Win Win Maw, who works cleaning at a construction site in Mae Sot, sneaked back to Myanmar and hid in a food truck. She said that from the truck, she switched to a car that took her back to her village, where she was quarantined by local officials.
During quarantine, Ms. Win Win Maw received a positive result for the virus. The two drivers who drove her home as well as residents of her village tested negative, leading to suspicions that she had contracted the virus in Thailand.
"I am sure there are many positive cases in Thailand that go undetected," said Dr. Brang Aung, head of Hpa-An Hospital in Myanmar, not far from the Thai border. In September, his hospital treated four Covid-19 cases that he believes originated in Thailand.
Silently spread
The 17 people who crossed the border illegally from Myanmar to Thailand and had positive results in recent days are all Thai and are linked to a hotel entertainment complex in Tachileik. Most of them are women.
They crossed the border for several days in late November and went to at least 5 locations across Thailand. Health officials have since closed schools, traced and disinfected the airport.
As Thai, these women are less afraid to go to hospitals where health care for the people is subsidized and of high quality. But for many undocumented migrants in the country, hospitals can be beyond their affordances and pose a lot of risks.
The activist groups say they know of many cases of workers returning to Myanmar from Thailand infected with the virus, leading to concerns that the virus may be quietly spreading in factories and construction sites in Thailand, though national statistics are still low.
Dr Sopon Iamsirithaworn, who is in charge of the infectious diseases division of the Ministry of Health, said the country has "very low rates of community infection".
At least 2 community infections in recent days have been associated with women coming from hotels in Myanmar.
In Mae Sot, Thais have begun organizing neighborhood surveillance and setting up barricades at night to prevent outsiders from entering. But in a border town just across the river, opposite a town in Myanmar where at least 1,200 people already have Covid, stopping the epidemic is impossible.
In October, 2 truck drivers carrying goods from Myanmar to Thailand had a positive result at a Thai hospital. They spread the virus to family members in Myanmar and to Myanmar citizens living in Thailand.
By November, that infection cluster in Thailand had been successfully prevented. But at the end of last month, two Thai women illegally crossed the border from Myanmar with a positive result in Mae Sot.
"The area is dependent on trade, on migrants," said Colonel Krit Kityathiwat, deputy commander of the 4th Infantry Regiment, border patrol in the Mae Sot region. "We don't want to be known as where Covid went into Thailand."