In Thailand, no one quite knows why [perhaps the very high temperatures we had in April, or the young age of the population, or the fact that Thais in public do not give hugs and kisses or even their hand, greeting each other with a small bow with clasped hands, or that many always use masks to try to protect themselves from terrible pollution, or that prevention measures (alcohol gel and temperature taking in public places) were put in place as early as February] the number of cases has been very small (3,445 as of the 7th September, with 58 deaths) and we had more than 110 consecutive days with no cases of transmission in the country (the few positives reported every day up to a few days ago are all people returned from abroad and found positive during the mandatory quarantine). No positive in Tha Song Yang District where I live, and only 4 in Tak province (and all cases came from Bangkok). For the time being the victims of the pandemic are mainly economic ones, given the very strict containment measures applied by the government under the advice of the Department of Public Health. Started after Italy (early April) they saw the closure of factories, restaurants, hangouts, airports, intra-provincial travel. Luckily we weren't forced home. Wisely: how do you keep closed in bamboo or wooden houses, which mostly are not closed? The unit, outside the cities, where people were strongly encouraged to leave the house only if necessary, was not the single dwelling, but the village: access was regulated and supervised, but inside the village people moved without a mask (everyone, even in remote places, was distributed one by the health volunteers) and without paying attention to social distancing.
Great information campaign through television and radio, using social media and especially the speakers that are in each village.
But countless are the people (Thai and non-Thai) who have lost their jobs, who have failed to get the aid promised by the government, who are on the verge of survival, who have entered depression and who have committed suicide. Many workers from Burma lost their jobs overnight and, unable to survive without pay (because no aid plan was put in place for them) huddled on buses heading to the border to return home, where at least they would find a roof. Crowds at the bus stations, crowds at the crossing points of the border. In June things were a little more relaxed, with reopening of restaurants and shopping malls and some factories, but with always the rule of social distancing and wearing masks.
The borders have been closed, the ground borders and the air borders. The streets of Mae Sot are incredibly empty: there is no longer the usual crowd of Burmese people going to sell or buy at the market, no longer the vans with the license plate of Myawaddy or Bago or Rangoon that flock to the main streets and shopping malls. When will they be able to return? Everything is still closed for now. And not only the recognized border posts, but in April also all the dozens of illegal gates on the border river, where usually long and low boats go back and forth from dawn to dusk carrying people and goods. Some flexibility for the “non-recognised” border passes had begun in May, but again a few days ago, seen the surge of cases in Burma, they have been closed and strictly manned by military. Thailand does not want covid cases enter the country. This makes the plight of sick people very difficult. Many Karen cross the border to come to the hospitals for care. Since the recent surge of Covid-19 cases in Burma and the new strict closure of all border crossings, hospitals refuse to accept people with no papers, who are assumd to have crossed the border. This makes things extremely difficult for the Karen who have been living on the Thai side of the border for many years without papers, and for all Karen patients with chronic disease who have their health care in small Thai border hospitals, like the one near our area. We are going to face difficult decisions.
The closure of the borders has been a huge blow not only to the manufacturing industry, but also to the tourism industry (which alone makes nearly the 20% of the national gross product). Flights have been suspended completely since April and not yet resumed. The borders were expected to reopen gradually in July, but things are going very slowly. The government speaks about creating “tourism bubbles” in places like Phuket and Pattaya, but for now nothing has been decided.
In Burma, as always, news is scarce. The number of official Covid-19 cases has been very low, (1.419 as for 7th September, with only 8 deaths declared), but in the past week they have seen a surge of numbers especially in the capital Rangoon/Yangon, with new lockdown measures being taken in these days and the closure of all the schools.
But are these numbers reliable? How many people are being tested? the ethnic groups are included? The violence of the military against ethnic groups continues, even taking advantage of the coronavirus emergency, with documented episodes of aggression at health posts for information on the pandemic, and rejection of the proposal of the Karen authorities of a national ceasefire to fight the virus together.
What happens in the refugee camps?
Officially 93,412 karens (June 2020 UNHCR data) live in the camps - but no one knows the real number. With the Covid-19 emergency the camps have been made completely off- limits. It is almost impossible to get in and out "to protect the population from a possible epidemic". If this could be true at first, it was no longer true after a few months of no transmission and the reopening of premises and factories and inter-provincial movements. But the camps remained very difficult to penetrate. With the dramatic decrease in food rations made a few years ago (many governments moved money to Burma when Aung San Suu Kyi was elected) being able to sneak out of the camp and go to work is essential to survive. This is no longer possible. There are those who think that this is exaclty what the government, which has long wished to get rid of these uncomfortable people, want so that, not being able to cope with these measures, the refugees will have, forced by “starvation", to try the way back to Burma or the road of illegality in Thailand. But who tried to go back has only faced difficulties, and who wants to pass from being a refugee to being illegal?
Schools
Schools, which in Thailand close for the summer in mid-March, were already closed when the lockdown began. Their reopening, which is usually in mid-May, was postponed to 1 July. Some online teaching was available, but too many children do not have access to it. At that date the Thai schools were given the green light to open, with temperature checks, masks and alcohol gel for the students. For 2 months social distancing was required. This meant that schools could not have all the children at the same time and half stayed home and received homework, half went to school. On a daily or week basis. Since the beginning of September all students are allowed to go to school, since there has not been documented transmission in Thailand.
However, the “migrant schools” were not allowed to open. This was really not fair, as all the children who registered with the schools for the new academic year, where already in Thailand. The children who had gone to Burma in March after the schools closed for summer, could not have come back, as the border was closed. But all migrant schools could not open and teachers were encouraged to go to the communities and teach in small groups there. This was very challenging, as many schools have a big catchment area. Teachers were divided in groups and had to prepare photocopies of each subject for every child. They are going out in the community 4 days a week with 2 days of preparation. It is not ideal, but better than no access to the children. In this month of September the schools who pass all the requirements given by the Thai Health and School Authorities will be able to open in October. They need to have social distancing between children, to have temperature checks, masks, places to wash hands ... All schools are now getting ready for this and hoping that they will be able to open. They need to check the temperature of every child for 14 days before they will be accepted at school.
Icra support and help
Many of our families working in the construction sites and factories around Mae Sot have lost their work overnight since the government imposed a severe lock-down last April. It is hard, when the salary you receive barely covers the expenses of the month. We decided to buy immediately, before the price rises, 100 bags of rice of 40 kilos each. And once a month we loaded the pick up a couple of times and went around the families we know being most in distress. We received help to do this by the French organisation ICRA-International and the Rotary Club of Pattaya.
ICRA-Switzerland has been supporting for many years school lunch in NLT school for about 100 Karen children of migrant families who live and work in the fields along the border (on the Thai side). Support has been given also for the breakfast and dinner of about 30 children who stay in a boarding attached to the school, as their families live too far inside Burma. As the school has not been allowed to open and the children of the boarding were not allowed to cross the border back, ICRA-Switzerland decided to use the money to give food supplies for the families of the children. Every month every family receives a 40kg bag of rice, 2 litres of oil, 2 kg of beans, 12 cans of fish.
TN High School, just on the other side of the border from Thailand, has been allowed to open on July 1st. ICRA-International helped this school in the past with support for the teachers. ICRA-Switzerland has been helping this school since 2019-20 with salary support. The school goes from nursery to high school and this year has more than 300 students.