Thailand: Migrants plead for vaccines as COVID takes lives, jobs

Migrant workers living on the Thai-Myanmar border say latest COVID-19 surge is putting their lives and livelihoods in jeopardy.

Bangkok, Thailand – When the first COVID-19 case was detected in the Thai border town of Mae Sot in April last year, *Hnin Hnin, was able to keep her school for migrant children open, spending her mornings as she usually did, drawing up word games on a large whiteboard as her five-year-old pupils looked on.

Infections and deaths at the time remained in the single digits, and Hnin Hnin, a teacher from Myanmar, was cautiously optimistic that the pandemic would end soon. Her school, which runs on aid from a local charity, received ample donations of food, hygiene kits and masks.

But one year later, an outbreak driven by the highly contagious Delta variant has led to spiralling infections at factories in the area, overwhelming hospitals and prompting a prolonged lockdown of the provinces on the Thai-Myanmar border and forcing Hnin Hnin’s school to close.