clutchcargo wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 5:59 pm

xandreu wrote: ↑Sun Jan 10, 2021 4:44 pm I hate to say it but I fear this is a ticking time bomb situation for Cambodia. With so many fleeing Thailand, how can they possibly keep tabs on every single one of them?

Yeah, aren't they supposed to go into 14 day quarantine in a gov't facility with the new rules now?

Housing 12,000 people for 14 days? And preventing any of them from escaping? That's some facility.

Infected Returning Migrant Workers All Women due to Traveling in Groups
Ou Sokmean 05/01/2021 4:37 PM
Noting that the exodus of Cambodian migrant workers from Thailand has seen only Cambodian women contracting COVID-19, Pailin Provincial Governor Ban Sreymom suggested it’s because women travel in groups.

PHNOM PENH--As all of the latest COVID-19 infections involve only women migrant workers who returned from Thailand, Pailin Provincial Governor Ban Sreymom has attempted to rationalize this infection trend.

As of Jan. 5, the Cambodian Health Ministry reported that 17 migrant workers have contracted COVID-19, but all are women aged between 20 and 30.

When asked why only women have been infected in the latest string of COVID-19 cases, Sreymom explained that women migrant workers often travel together in a group and this has put them at a higher risk of infection.

“Our women migrant workers normally travel from Thailand in a group of five and they also work together and then they come back home together,” Sreymom said.
“That’s why they get infected as a group.”

Sreymom went on to say that the women workers have also had close contact through eating as well as sharing working and living spaces.

According to Keo Vanthan, spokesman for the General Immigration Department, at the Ministry of Interior, between Dec. 20, 2020 and Jan. 3, 2021, there had been a total of 3,616 Cambodians returning from Thailand following the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak in Samut Sakhon Province.

Contacted on Tuesday (Jan.5), Or Vandine, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health, also agreed that traveling in group without keeping a proper space between them is likely a main factor that drives more infections among women.
https://cambodianess.com/article/infect ... -in-groups

January 15, 2021
Returned Migrant Workers COVID-19 Cluster Alarming

With the Cambodian migrant workers COVID-19 cluster increasing at an alarming rate, the Government has reiterated its call for workers to remain in Thailand.

Minister of Labour and Vocational Training, Ith Samheng said, the Cambodian migrant workers who violated the Thai authority’s movement restrictions and crossed the International Cambodia-Thailand border illegally to enter the Kingdom have now posed a high risk to the people and their effort to curb the spread of the virus.

In a statement released today by the committee to legalise the Cambodian workers in Thailand, Samheng said, the Cambodian migrant workers should remain in Thailand and adhere to the Thai authority’s movement restrictions.

“During the outbreak of COVID-19, the Thai authorities do not take any action against the [illegal] employees or workers in Thailand,” he said.

“In contrast, if you [the migrant workers] go from one place to another or make your return to Cambodia, you will be at high risk of being apprehended by the Thai authorities or even get infected with COVID-19.”

Samheng also called on the Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand to remain calm and stay put where they are and follow the preventive measures implemented by the Thai government.

“Please trust the capacity and capability of the Thai authorities in preventing and treating the disease,” he added.

This is not the first time that the Cambodian government had asked the migrant workers in Thailand not to return home, as it did so earlier when the nation (Thailand) was hit by the second wave of coronavirus and imposed more movement restrictions to break the chain of COVID-19 virus transmission.

Prime Minister HE three weeks ago called on all the Cambodian migrant workers in Thailand to stay calm and believe in the Thai government’s capacity to control the issue.

“The true illness is fear (psychological factor). We can fear the COVID-19 pandemic, but must not get into panic,” he underlined in a voice message shared to the media.

In the first 15 days of this year, Cambodia has reported 56 COVID-19 cases among its migrant workers returning from Thailand. Meanwhile, the Thai Ministry of Public Health’s Department of Disease Control has reported this week on its website that 157 Cambodians working in Thailand have been tested positive for COVID-19.
https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50804143/r ... -alarming/

Looks like both countries are working together on this ongoing issue, and for the migrant workers staying put in the views of the authorities of those countries is seen has the most sensible way to tackle the problem, keeping the virus from spreading into Cambodia. But how will the migrant workers react to this. To start with their were workers without the paperwork that allows them to. Work legal, it says that will be amended in their case now, and the money is obviously better pay there than back home. That's if there is still work.
I can see the migrant workers being worried about the situation, illigal for some, and the biggest worry of the covid-19, also it may come across that their own government and people have given up on them. Now they just want to be safe, and that is not there, but home in their own country.

More Migrant Families Caught Trying to Return Home from Thailand

Cambodia News, (Battambang): On the evening of February 24, 2021, the joint police force in cooperation with the intervention force arrested 14 migrant workers from Thailand, 7 males, 5 females and 2 children in Phnom Touch village, Pich Chenda commune. Phnom Proek District, Battambang Province.

The Land Border Police said that the arrests of the 14 illegal Cambodian migrant workers were made under the guidance of the Royal Government to help prevent the spread of Covid 19 into the community. They will be placed in quaratine and tested for the virus.

Cambodia News, (Battambang Province): On Thursday, March 11, 2021, Chrey Seima Administrative Police Force of the Sampov Loun District Police Inspectorate received a group of 22 people, including children, returning from Thailand to their village in Cambodia, Chrey Seima commune, Sampov Loun district.

After interrogation and education, our forces handed the returning migrant families over to the medical team to be taken to Chattalysak Center at Koun Phnom 32 Secondary School as instructed by the Ministry of Health.

Cambodia News, (Battambang province): 36 migrant workers returning to Cambodia from Thailand were detained by immigration officials on the afternoon of March 17, 2021 at the point of the village of Yol, Chrey Sima Commune, Sampov Lun, Battambang Province.


Officials have reported that after questioning the returning workers, they have escorted them to quarantine facilities according to the instructions from the Ministry of Health.