Ready or not, the government finally reopened the country to tourists from 63 countries and territories while loosening Covid-19 preventive measures. From yesterday, despite a number of complaints against flip-flopping and a surge of infections in Chiang Mai, there has been a glimpse of hope as tourists return and businesses gradually resume their operations.
While there is progress on this front there remains the issue of unabated illegal entry into the country which is a cause of illicit migrant labour and human trafficking. Throughout almost two years of the pandemic, not a single month (or more recently not a week goes by) without reports of illegal migrants being caught.
Yesterday, 102 Myanmar nationals were caught in Sai Yok district in Kanchanaburi province. They confessed to paying a middleman between 17,000-20,000 baht per head to cross from Dawei township in Myanmar to work in Bangkok, Chon Buri, or Samut Sakhon. Likewise on Sunday, scores of Myanmar workers were arrested in Tak province. Last Tuesday, 10 Myanmar nationals were also arrested in Sai Yok district in Kanchanaburi province. Three cases within a week are but a tiny drop in the sea of illegal entries made along 2,401km of what is a porous border to enter Thailand.
According to the defence ministry, the state body responsible for border surveillance and protection, 30,000 illegal migrants have been deported this year so far. Meanwhile, International Organization for Migration (IOM) has reported there could be 1-2 million undocumented workers in the country, most of them unvaccinated.
The flow of illegal entries shows that the government has constantly failed to tackle this problem. It also may explain why the rate of Covid infection remains untraceable and not subdued despite enhanced vaccination efforts. In Chiang Mai province, a major epicentre of illegal entry, there has been a cluster of infections at fresh markets where illegal workers concentrate. Yesterday, there was a report of infections at a construction site in Nonthaburi province. The cases tend to rise as business operators want more workforce. Illicit workers are considered cheaper and easier to find.
It's about time that the government took this matter more seriously. During the past two years, it has only paid lip service to it. The government, through Deputy Prime Minister Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, gave the task of taking care of the borderline to the Ministry of Defence.
It's understandable that guarding such a long border is a near-impossible task but the performance of the army in regards to enforcing Covid measures could have been much better with one flop reported in the middle of this year when the government ordered construction sites in Bangkok and nearby areas to go into lockdown. Despite soldiers being sent to seal construction sites, many workers managed to slip out of the camps, triggering mass infections in provinces.
The Labour Ministry has also been criticised as being a laggard in solving the problem. It had to be fully aware of the risk of unvaccinated and undocumented migrant workers since the middle of last year, so it's surprising that the cabinet just approved the registration of undocumented labourers in the cabinet meeting last month, a few weeks before the country's reopening schedule.
The government might be racing against time to inoculate 70% of the population by the end of this year. It might also invest funds to stock up on pricey medicines. But without controlling illicit labourers -- or at least having them properly vaccinated as soon as possible -- it remains just a matter of time before more cluster infections break out.
