Cambodia News, Banteay Meanchey Province: A report from the border police said that on November 12, 2018, Thai army forces standing along the Cambodia-Thai border line found a group of suspicious individuals following the path across the border from Cambodia into Thailand, at the Ponam Khleang village area, Sra Keo province. 21 Khmer workers, including women and children, who were illegally crossing the border, were arrested by the Thai military officers and returned to Cambodia.

Cambodian workers poised for return at checkpoints
published : 28 Nov 2021 at 04:00
writer: Post Reporters

Local Thai and Cambodian authorities are making preparations to reopen border checkpoints in Sa Kaeo province to enable the return of Cambodian workers and vendors to Thailand.

The governors of Sa Kaeo and the Cambodian provinces of Banteay Meanchey and Battambang met last week in Aranyaprathet district to discuss a tentative Dec 15 or Dec 16 reopening.

Sa Kaeo governor Parinya Photisat said it had been initially agreed that four checkpoints -- two permanent border passes and two border trade passes -- would reopen.

They are Ban Khlong Luek-Poi Pet in Aranyaprathet district, Ban Khao Din-Ban Kor Mor 13 in Khlong Hat district, Ban Nong Prue-Malai in Aranyaprathet district and Ban Ta Phraya-Ban Bueng Takuan in Ta Phraya district.

Based on initial discussions, he said authorities have agreed to initially allow up to 3,000 Cambodian vendors back into the country to resume cross-border trade at Talad Rong Klua market in Aranyaprathet district, one of the busiest on the Thai-Cambodian border.

Those who want to work in sugarcane plantations will be chosen by employers at the border and taken to the farms, he said.

The workers are not allowed to travel elsewhere unless they have permission.

He said the meeting also focused on Covid-19 containment measures that Cambodian workers must comply with to gain entry when the checkpoints reopen.

Vaccination requirements, rapid testing and health insurance or social security coverage were among the ideas proposed, he said.
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2222739/

phuketrichard wrote: ↑Sun Nov 28, 2021 8:03 pm

“The Cambodian side requested that 3,000 Cambodians be allowed into Thailand for work and to return home in the evening. They could enter at 6am and return by 10pm.

https://www.phnompenhpost.com/national/ ... xENXysqZtg

problems i see, Thailand is still less than 60% vaccinated and the northeast i would bet is under 40% full vaccinated<
so the Cambodians come to work and take back covid.

Apart from the one's chosen to work on the Thai sugar plantations, it has got to beat these migrant workers paying large amounts of money to a fixer and dodging landmines, also avoiding health measures on both sides of the borders. But like you quote - Cambodians come to work and take back covid. Then again it's been reported that Chinese people visiting Cambodia, and in a new thread that Thais have recently returned home with covid19. Swings and roundabout's really, and it may ease the daily illegal crossing's of the border, but it will never stop that activity, more so when border officials want their slice of the pie, with worker's paying small favourable payments.

Cambodia News (Banteay Meanchey Province) On 16 December 2021, Banteay Meanchey Provincial Military Force and Border Police No. 815 intercepted a group of 32 Cambodians, who attempted to cross the border into Thailand illegally at 8:00 pm, at the Boeung Beng village-commune crossing in Malai district, Banteay Meanchey province.

The group consisted of several families from Battambang, a total of 32 people, including 9 women and 13 children, who attempted the illegal border crossing in a Samsung van bearing license plate number Battambang 2A-7895. They were planning to go to Thailand to look for work.

Upon completing interrogation, authorities instructed the illegal migrants to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and also made them sign a contract before handing them over to the specialized force of the Malai District Police Inspectorate for further legal procedure.

What gets me about this border crossing is in the past the Cambodian migrant workers returning have been put into quarantine centers to insulate has a precaution, also at the time of many reports of their numbers being at the time found positive of Covid19 after testing, not to mention mostly all (or above 90% are now drug addicts), and the quarantine staff were finding difficulties in caring for them.
It must have all changed now because their numbers of positive cases are not mentioned like before. I can't believe that they are not tested in the situation that they are in effect entering the country, or is it that the majority are now vaccinated against Covid19 and are showing herd immunity?

Omicron found in Thai district bordering Cambodia

Thailand has confirmed that at least three Omicron cases have been found and that 49 people are at ‘high risk’ in a province directly bordering Cambodia which contains an international border crossing into The Kingdom.
Kap Choeng district is on the border with Cambodia with the international border crossing into Cambodia of Chong Chom Checkpoint.

Chong Chom Checkpoint faces O Smach International Checkpoint in Samraong Municipality, Oddar Meanchey Province, Cambodia

The first Omicron case in the district was a 16-year-old man who went to a concert on Dec 15 and 17, resulting in 30 people at high risk of infection and 21 people at low risk of infection.

The second and third Omicron cases were a 40-year-old woman and a 58-year-old man who returned from Denmark and went to their resident in Kap Choeng district, resulting in 19 people at high risk of infection and two people at low risk of infection.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50996360/o ... -cambodia/

Migrant workers fear new variant, so far no Omicron amongst them

To avoid history repeating itself, border officials in frontline provinces are tightening up controls to prevent the Omicron variant being transmitted to the local population by migrant workers. So far, no Omicron cases have been detected amongst them.

In previous months, the provinces bordering Thailand saw an influx of returning migrant workers, which coincided with a surge of cases of the aggressive Delta variant. It became clear that the returning workers were responsible for the rapid spread of community cases.

Omicron, a new variant of Covid-19 renowned for being highly transmissible, continues to strike fear into migrant workers, as the numbers of returning workers has noticeably decreased when compared to earlier in December.

According to the National News Bureau of Thailand, the Thai Department of Medical Sciences reported 205 Omicron cases, 180 of which were detected among international travellers, while the remaining 25 were found in the local population.

Army spokesman Major General Mao Phalla said yesterday that they have been instructed to keep a close eye on international borders because that is where new cases are most likely to appear.

“The military on the border is cooperating with all relevant authorities to prevent the spread of Covid-19 into the local population and I am proud to say that there have been zero positive Omicron cases among migrant workers as of Sunday,” he said.

“Officials are tightening controls to prevent migrant workers crossing illegally into Thailand as we notice that smuggling cases decline when returnee numbers increase,” he added.

Battambang provinicial governor Sok Lou said yesterday that he was seeing similar trends in his province, with a decline in workers returning from Thailand compared with earlier this month. While Omicron is circulating, officials are focused on preventing a steep rise in infection rates.

“Currently there are not more than 50 returnees per day, while in early December there were more than 100. Due to their fear of the new variant, many are opting to remain at their workplaces in Thailand,” he said.

“Most of them have been fully vaccinated by the Thai government, and only a few have tested positive. The positive cases can be verified by PCR tests at our provincial referral hospital in just three hours and none of the positive cases have carried the Omicrom variant,” he added.

Banteay Meanchey deputy governor Ngoun Mengchroun said yesterday that there are more than 100 migrant workers returning each day. He felt assured that his forces had the ability to monitor this number of returnees.

“We experienced an influx of up to 800 migrant workers returning per day in the past, so we can control this amount easily”, he said, adding: “We have not found any cases of the new variant amongst them yet.”

“We have enhanced our testing measures and although rapid testing is just one way to detect the virus, we are seeing very few positive results and most of the returnees are fully vaccinated,” he noted.

Oddar Meanchey deputy governor Dy Rado yesterday said that migrant workers are still very much a concern of officials as the virus might still spread in the community if they are not very careful.

“In the past few weeks we have seen more than 100 returning per day. Most of them are fully vaccinated by the Thai government and the few who returned positive test results were transferred immediately to treatment centres,” he said.

https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50995961/m ... ngst-them/

Reading the reports/articles of the above, you could only expect that the vaccines are doing their job, but it's been a little quiet about the reports of the few that had tested positive. Also has a rule the positive cases usually have passed on the virus to others. But I don't keep a tab on numbers like some of you do, do the numbers tally up to what are totals?

Cambodia News, Banteay Meanchey Province: Last night a Cambodian border patrol detained a group of 21 Khmer workers who were attempting to illegally cross the border into Thailand. On the night of January 21, 2019, at the point of Chhetal village, O Slao commune, Malai district, the intervention forces arrested 21 people, 10 men,10 women, and one child, who were trying to get to Thailand to look for work.
The workers were detained and the authorities told them that if they want to go to Thailand for work, they must apply officially, and not trust the illegal brokers who will cheat them and steal their money.