In Thailand, Burmese workers are no longer allowed to move freely
Audio 02:30
A woman pushes a cart outside a camp where Thai and Burmese construction workers reside, now under lockdown due to Covid-19 coronavirus prevention measures, in Bangkok's Laksi district on 28 June 2021. AFP - LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA
By: Carol Isoux
6 mins
Faced with a new wave of Covid-19, Thailand is trying to limit contamination: Bangkok, the capital, is again under curfew and travel is not recommended, or even prohibited, but for certain categories of the population only.
This is the case of the Burmese workers, cloistered in their dormitories for months.
Publicity
From our correspondent in Bangkok,
All around one of the largest construction sites in the Bangkok region, palisades hide the work from view.
Not far from the site, a set of prefabricated buildings serves as a dormitory for the workers.
Inside, tiny rooms measuring three by two meters.
This is where Zaw Min and his wife Saya, 19, are locked away most of the time. A truck picks them up at 7 am to travel the few hundred meters between the dormitory and the work site, and brings them back in the evening. Any exit is prohibited, except for the corner supermarket, and always one by one.
“
The work, the bedroom, the bedroom, the work, that's all we have the right to do.
Go out only to go to work, you can't.
Go for a walk, we can't.
Go settle business, even in an emergency, you have to ask the site manager,
says Saya.
The Burmese were completely locked up while the others, in Bangkok, during the day, they still have the right to go out.
You have to cook yourself on the stove, in the very small room.
And then it's scary because right now, in a room not far away, five workers have the Covid.
"
Stricter restrictions
Workers are tested weekly and must wear a colored bracelet indicating that their result is negative.
If the restrictions on them are stricter than for other residents of Bangkok, it is also because tests have revealed a high prevalence of the virus among immigrant workers.
When the Prime Minister announced a few weeks ago the closure of the workers inside the sites, many, in particular the Cambodians preferred to return home.
Impossible for the Burmese, whose country is sinking into civil war.
The health crisis in Thailand has exacerbated the usual discrimination against Burmese workers, sometimes victims of extortion by mafia groups. It happened to Anjali, a young Burmese who came to work in Thailand as a domestic helper. “
When I got to the bus station, I was first told that they did not sell tickets to the Burmese. Then another company agreed to sell me a ticket for a big premium. They kept my passport. But in fact the bus stopped halfway, they brought down all the Burmese for a Covid test out of the blue. We were locked inside a sort of clinic. If we couldn't pay for the test, we couldn't go out,
”says the young woman.
Expensive tests, 80 euros, about a quarter of a worker's salary.
The curfew from 9 p.m. decreed in the Thai capital applies to everyone.
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