No bed of roses: Thai military personnel in protective gear checking the temperature of Myanmar migrants apprehended in Kanchanaburi province bordering Myanmar. Thousands of Myanmar migrants have been part of a wave of illegal crossings into Thailand in recent months. — AFP
Trekking through dense jungle and mountainous terrain at night to avoid arrest, one couple from Myanmar endured a gruelling journey to Thailand – grasping for an economic lifeline as jobs dry up in their coup-hit home.
Myo Chit and his wife are among thousands of migrants who have made the crossing in recent months, spurred by the twin crises of a pandemic-hit economy and turmoil triggered by the junta’s ousting of Aung San Suu Kyi’s civilian government.Their two-day journey from Myanmar’s coastal Tanintharyi region took them through corn farms, rubber plantations and dense jungle before they reached the porous border, where they crossed into Thailand’s Kanchanaburi province with the help of a smuggler.There they risked arrest and immediate processing for deportation by Thai police.
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